• Peter Mares

12 November 2009Without more resettlement places, interception in Indonesia is pointless, argues Peter Mares in Inside Story

IN APRIL, when I was invited deliver a lecture on refugee policy, I was initially reluctant. I felt that I had moved on from my work in this area, having written Borderline (first published in 2001 before the arrival of the Tampa, then in a revised post-Tampa edition in 2002) and many articles, essays, speeches and book chapters in the following years. I also thought, what more is there to say? Hardly any boats were arriving at the time and the Rudd government’s policies, while far from perfect, were a huge improvement on what went before. The issue had all but gone away.

I suggested various alternative topics but Elliott Forsyth, convenor of the Nellie Watson Lecture committee, was gently insistent that I stick to refugees. He obviously knew something that I didn’t. Or, being older and wiser, he simply realised that refugee issues never “go away.” Within a fortnight of my receiving his invitation, four boats carrying around 200 people made it to Australian waters, including a vessel that burst into flames after being intercepted near Ashmore Reef. Five asylum seekers died in that incident, others were terribly injured, and seven months later we still don’t now how and why the fire started. Since then boats have continued to arrive in Australian waters; thirty-eight so far this year carrying almost 2000 asylum seekers between them.

So here I am, speaking about Australia’s place in the global refugee crisis, amidst what can now be termed “the fifth wave” of unauthorised boat arrivals – though in a global context it would probably be more accurate to call it “the fifth ripple.”...

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