Refugees and Races Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Refugees and Races - Research Paper Example The countries of the world, especially those who preach against the very factors that drive refugees out of their homes, is expected to open their communities and societies in order to receive these poor souls. But the fact is that some of them refuse accepting immigrants or impose restrictions on refugees. For the purposes of this paper, several countries would be cited in order to provide a picture about sorry state of policies governing refugees. The first of these is Australia. The country has a number of codes and legal guarantees for the acceptance of refugees. For instance, there is the Section 91R of the Migration Act of 1958, which identifies the requirements for an immigrant that should be accepted because he or she is a refugee. In a specific case that is already part of the Australian jurisprudence, Applicant A v MIIEA, it was held that "as long as the discrimination constitutes persecution and is inflicted for a Convention reason, the person will qualify as a refugee." ( Bagaric and Vrachnas 2006, 296) However, recent events demonstrate a different reality with regards to the Australian refugee policy. In 2001, hundreds of Afghans and Iraqis being persecuted at home and hoping for sanctuary in Australia were met with Australian warships effectively sending them to Indonesia, where they languished for weeks with uncertain future, having no country of their own (Timberlake 2001). Recently, 430 Sri Lankan and Pakistani refugees also suffered the same faith when Australia refused to accept them after they were rescued by a Norwegian cargo ship (Mail Online 2011). The fact is that Australia has been enforcing tougher immigration policy and could be found discriminating against refugees, particularly boat people, even though they fit the profile of those persecuted individuals that the country ideally welcomes with open arms. According to Sidoti, the National spokesperson of Human Rights Council of Australia: The most recent refugee arrivals in Australia have been predominantly from Afghanistan and Iraq and they have been predominantly Muslim. They have experienced discrimination on these bases along with other Muslim and Middle Eastern residents of Australia. The NSW Police Commissioner recently reported a great increase of attacks on Muslim or Middles Eastern residents of the state since the Bali bombing on 12 October... They have also included stones thrown through the windows of the homes and shops of Muslims (2002).. The same can also be said about the United Kingdom. This country has a long anti-immigration history. For example, the Merchant Shipping Act of 1906 introduced a language test for those signing in British ships in the UK, meaning to discriminate against all non-white sailors. (Shah 2000) It was only after the 1980s when the UK government started to encourage plurality. It was a gradual process that has been characterized by community resentments and race riots, considering the way the British see immigrants as fore ign and alien. Today, the country's immigration and refugee policies are characterized by a particular aversion to non-white applicants and is still reminiscent of the Merchant Shipping Act by mandating English proficiency, along with other stringent requirement for all immigrants designed to weed out undesirable races. By 1990s, the UK has accumulated a series of measures that strengthened immigration controls, especially those that made it more difficult for asylum seekers to enter the country by imposing visa requirements on the countries from which asylum seekers came and imposing a duty on carriers to ensure that only