ECAJ calls for compassion for asylum seekers
THE Jewish community has called for asylum seekers to be processed "expeditiously" and "in a spirit of compassion" by the Rudd Government.
AJN STAFF
WHILE reconciling Australia’s obligations under international refugee laws with the need for proper screening might prove a difficult balancing act for the federal Government, the Jewish community has called for asylum seekers to be processed “expeditiously” and “in a spirit of compassion”.
A statement on asylum seekers from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) last week also called on the Rudd Government to “to work constructively with other governments and appropriate non-government organisations to ameliorate the plight of refugees around the world and in Australia”.
It called on the Government “to implement in good faith and with humanity, Australia’s important legal and moral obligations” on refugees.
The ECAJ statement drew on the recent history of world Jewry in highlighting that “especially prior to, but also during and immediately after World War II, many thousands of Jewish refugees attempting to flee persecution in Europe were denied entry into other countries or [were] forced to engage ‘smugglers’ to try to escape to freedom”.
The ECAJ stated that the International Convention on the Status of Refugees of 1951, to which Australia is a signatory, “came into existence in belated recognition by the international community of the great wrong that had been done by civilised nations in refusing to grant asylum to Jewish refugees fleeing from Europe prior to and during World War II”.
More broadly, ECAJ president Robert Goot called on Australians to discuss asylum seekers in a considered and respectful manner and avoid resorting to “pejorative generalisations”, which he said are unhelpful and can be misleading and unfair.
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