17 June 2011 Volume: 21 Issue: 11 Australia's ... - Eureka Street

Volume 21 Issue: 1117 June 2011One night while preparing a case for a young Iraqi woman, I gave her children somehighlighters to draw with. I did not notice that one child started to use the highlighters todraw on the office wall. The next day, an officer from the camp saw the graffiti and was verycritical of me for letting the child do this. ‘This is damaging government property,’ I was told.‘Someone will have to pay for the damage.’That night there was a strong storm and the doors to several rooms where seriouslydamaged with the ferocity of the wind. The next day I cynically asked the officer, ‘Who isgoing to pay for the damage caused to government property by the wind?’Like the officer at Woomera, the government’s focus is misplaced. We should not beobsessed with people smugglers, or with a child scribbling on a wall. These are diversionsfrom the central issue, which should at all times be the dignity and wellbeing of the humanlives that are at stake.Rather than focusing on asylum seekers, we must focus on establishing fair systems thatprotect refugees from being returned to places where their lives or freedoms could bethreatened, while also providing for family unity and certainty for their security. Talk ofbreaking ‘business models’ only distracts us from these key obligations.©2011 EurekaStreet.com.au 40