1200px-Manus_Island_regional_processing_facility_2012

For the past three weeks the left and refugee activists have been screeching as loud as they can about the scheduled closure of the Manus Island Dentition Centre. They are using this as another opportunity to try and break the Turnbull’s Government’s resolve when it comes to maintaining Australia’s strong border protection.

Under the direction of refugee activists, the 400 men located at the former Manus Island Detention Centre have refused to leave and relocated to a new $10 million facility that the Australia Government has built. They celebrated when it was announced the centre would be closing but are now refusing to leave.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has refuted the claims of Tim Costello from World Vision and Greens Senator Nick McKim that the new facility is not ready and is unliveable. Dutton has also made the point previously that many of these men aren’t as downtrodden as they claim they are.

Back here in Australia refugee activists have occupied the offices of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection in our major cities. On Melbourne Cup Day they even drove a car on the Flemington railway line to stop racegoers attending the cup with the bizarre logic that if they disrupted the public going about their business they would somehow agree with their position.

International pressure from organisations such as the United Nations and Amnesty International on the Australia Government has intensified, including the claims that torture is being practice by our government. New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern eager to display her progressive bleeding heart has offered to take 150 of the men along with $3 million in humanitarian assistance. This resulted in people smugglers attempting to send a fresh lot of asylum seeker boats New Zealand’s way.

The authorities in Papua New Guinea have now taken drastic action to end the standoff by physically removing the men from the former Centre and destroying the makeshift shelters that remain there. The men remaining there when they have been ordered to leave is nothing more than squitting and for them to complain now about the possessions being taken and forcibly moved they can only blame themselves.

The alleged brutality of the Papua New Guinea authorities is being relayed into Australia and shared by refugee activists by an Iran man Behrouz Boochani being held on Manus Island via his Twitter account. He has also has had an op-ed piece published in the Guardian. It is interesting that he and his fellow asylum seekers claim they are being held in squalor but have access to technological devices that allow them to tweet and write articles.

As the standoff continues we have seen 12 former Australians of the Year write a letter to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull urging to him allow immediate medical assistance to men located in the facility. Bill Shorten and Labor are encouraging the government to accept the New Zealand offer.

No matter how much pressure these men and their advocates apply they are still failing in their attempt to both influence the federal government’s stance and the Australia people’s support for strong border policy. The activists back in Australia may be able to organise snap protests in our major cities but both the government and the public know that any weakness on border policy will see the boats return.

It is also quite callous of these activists to convince these men that they should sacrifice their own health, so they can achieve a political goal, people in these detention facilities are sold on the false hope offered by the refugee activists that they will be allowed into Australia very soon.

The federal government wants to empty out the detention facilities as soon as possible without jeopardising Australia’s border security. The reason these men are there in the first place is thanks to lax border policies of the Rudd/Gillard Labor Governments in luring 50,000 people to Australia on 800 boats with 1,000 drowning at sea.

This circus currently unfolding on Manus is all of the left’s making, the Coalition Government is simply doing what the Australian people elected them to do back in 2013 which is first stop the boats, reduce the taxpayers bill on border security and most importantly let us decide who comes into the country.

 

About The Author