Thousands protest Australia's refugee detention policy

Good to see Australia rejecting open borders globalism.

Love to see these folks put some action with their words. Sponsor a refugee! Take them into your home! All it would take is 1600 volunteers out of the "thousands" at the marches.

Do that, and I may believe your sincerity. Otherwise, it's just all virtue signalling.

A fair policy by Australia. Conditions are 100 times better than refugee camps in other parts of the world. The people can leave if they want to go home or back to the country they departed from to get to Australia. Many left their country going to Indonesia which is a safe place but wanted to shop around for a more prosperous nation to live in. They give tens of thousands of dollars to people smugglers to get to Australia instead of using that money to set up a good life in Indonesia and applying to emigrate to Australia legally.

Sorry, but if these people are truly looking to escape violence in their home country, why do you travel so far? If Japan was this war torn wasteland and I was looking to escape it, would you not look to South Korea, China, Taiwan first (closest)? Not start with New Zealand, Brazil, Iceland.

Australia a wealthy country? There are more Australians homeless and sleeping on the streets, in parks and other public places than ever before in the countrys history yet these demonstators are only interested in the welfare of refugees.

Thousands of people marched across major Australian cities Saturday calling for an end to Canberra's offshore detention of asylum-seekers.

Well it looks as though there are thousands of highly motivated Aussies who are willing to house and feed all these refugees at their own expense. Good for them.

No wait - they want someone else to be responsible for them while they virtue signal and pat themselves on the back about how wonderful they are? That’s a different story. After this bunch what about the next one- and the one after that? There is an endless supply of such people all over south Asia and beyond.

Canberra has tried to resettle those recognised as refugees to third countries such as the US, and more than a hundred have been moved there, according to the Refugee Action Coalition.

No worries mate - Germany and Canada pride themselves on their moral superiority and will surely take these desperate people.

Ironically the Australian overseas detention policy is a response primarily against people smugglers: make sure the poor suckers who pay people smugglers are guaranteed not to make it to Australia and demand for people smugglers' services dwindles and dies.

The point is that such people arrive almost all by boat. Yet far more refugees (sponsored and not) and similar people get to Australia by air.

Australia is an island country (like Japan), so options are boat or air. By boat has few if any checks - with people on small boats burning or destroying their papers once about to be 'rescued'. Countries with land borders exist with less straight forward migration access conditions. For instance, Britain is an island but has trains under the sea from Europe.

I think the off-shore detention is a travesty, especially with all the secrecy and security surrounding it (eg. no journalists allowed). Yet, talking to people working in the off-shore camps, with some awful humanitarian stories AS WELL AS stories of some people being really hard-core anti-social, nutters and criminals, plus some who are just poor and cannot get a life where they originally came from.

So, as usual, the people who need a sanctuary become victims of a process nominally to keep riff-raff out.

A further irony is that two or more generations ago during Australia's post-war immigration waves, new migrants were taken to centers in regional Australia for a couple of years, husbands separated from wives and kids, before they were free to go where they wanted to live, such as the cities. Now in Australia there is now similar talk in the government of 'new' policy to have migrants go to the country in order to get a place.

Sadly lots of the demonstrators do not realise a lot of this. Many are genuine humane empathetic people; others are just naive want-to-feel-gooders who are happy to have their surrounds painted in cosmopolitan multi-cultural colours, yet who really would not like to sit next to any of the suckers referred to 'earlier' on the bus or in a coffee place while they sip their macchiato or latte.

(Which am I? Well my job now is helping some pretty low English-level migrants and other Aussies who missed out learn that 'b-a-g' does not spell 'dog')

Good on the Oz govt. its the right, and yes the compassionate thing to do.

The 'protesters' dont care abt

anything but their virtue signalling.

These protestors should leave their name and a contact phone number with the Australian government so they can then be contacted by some Adopt-An-Immigrant agency. Problem solved.

These protestors should leave their name and a contact phone number with the Australian government so they can then be contacted by some Adopt-An-Immigrant agency. Problem solved.

Why should they take on the responsibility of the government? That makes no sense whatsoever.

I suppose you think you scored a point though. Three points to team red!

Strangerland - Why should they take on the responsibility of the government?

The government isn't going to adopt them. It would be a nice gesture on the part of the government to collect the names of wanna-be adopters, but you're right, the Adopt-An-Immigrant groups should collect the names themselves.