Humanitarian grounds useless when humanity is missing
It should come as no surprise that the Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews has refused a plea from an injured Sri Lankan asylum-seeker (the man has shrapnel embedded in his head and suffers from psychological problems) to apply for on-shore protection from Australia (where he has 20 relatives to support him), rather than be shipped to Nauru, which has become Australia's dumping ground for its unwanted refugees.
The Minister had a discretion to intervene on humanitarian grounds, but humanity has long ceased to be a feature of Australia's immigration system. We are so frightened of the trickle of desperate people who manage to beat the odds and arrive at our shores that we have determined not to see them as human. Humanitarian grounds have no meaning when their supposed beneficiaries have been stripped of their humanity, by unrelenting demonisation and fearmongering and by enforced separation.
It is so much easier not to recognise the humanity of someone you can't see or hear. Middle of the desert detention camps just didn't do the job. People who wanted to look could still glimpse the desperation behind the barbed wire. They could still find out about the water cannons and the tear gas, the solitary confinement and the children driven to self-mutilation. So a more distant place needed to be found, one that those pesky cameras and human rights lawyers would have trouble accessing. The physical separation had to be made so complete that no shred of humanity remained. Out of sight, out of mind.
Humanitarian grounds will not breach that isolation for its precise purpose is to deny humanity. Even if someone is grievously injured. Even if in Australia they would have the support of their relatives as they wait for their visa. Even if, as turns out in the vast majority of cases, the asylum seekers are genuine refugees.
Do we really feel so unsure of ourselves, so insecure, so irrationally fearful of outsiders that we can empathise with people we see in television broadcasts from the other side of the world, but will kill all empathy and all compassion in our hearts should these very people arrive on our doorstep?
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