Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-09-06-Speech-4-186"
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"en.20010906.9.4-186"2
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"Mr President, in August the Norwegian freighter
rescued 433 Afghans and four Indonesian crew members from a fishing vessel that had set sail from an Indonesian port. The captain was given permission to proceed to the Indonesian port of Merak, after which he was put under duress by the passengers with threatened suicides and forced to sail towards Australian waters. It is believed that many of these passengers set out from a refugee camp in Pakistan, paying about GBP 4 500 each to be taken illegally to Australia. Apparently the going rate for Germany is GBP 7 000 and Britain, the destiny of choice, is GBP 10 000.
The Australian government was perfectly entitled to exercise its sovereign right under the law of the sea to secure its borders by refusing the ship access to Australian waters. Nor do its obligations under the 1951 Geneva Convention apply until an asylum seeker is actually present on its territory. The convention itself, introduced before the age of cheap mass jet travel, was a response to the horrors of Nazism and designed to protect the principle of asylum. However, as we are all aware, it is increasingly abused by economic migrants who pass through several safe but poor countries in order to reach rich countries to settle in, where it can lead to people-trafficking, prostitution and a black economy in jobs.
In Britain over 100 000 people claimed asylum last year and the great majority of these claims were unfounded. But it remains profitable for criminal people-traffickers to ply their trade because appeals can be strung out for years and, even when unsuccessful, almost no-one is deported back to their country of origin.
Australia's problem is also our problem. We need urgently to face up to the need to secure our borders and remove those who enter illegally. There is widespread concern. The EU should urgently develop new policies in this area. We also need to exert severe pressure on those countries which refuse to take back their own nationals. In fact we need to totally renegotiate the 1951 Geneva Convention and think again.
I salute Prime Minister Howard of Australia's robust and courageous stance over this issue."@en1
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substitute; Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy (1999-07-21--2002-01-14)3
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