In the past 30 years Australia has crafted an almost uniquely cruel asylum seeker policy. “You are worse than I am.” No more evidence about the character of Australia’s asylum seeker policy is required. As a social scientist, I have attempted to explain Australia’s remorselessly cruel asylum seeker policy. In the present, we have developed a set of policies to ensure that not even one asylum seeker boat reaches our shores. Ministers, public servants and defence officials were by 2013 genuinely unsettled by the pace of asylum seeker boat arrivals.

Source: The Guardian September 22, 2018 22:02 UTC