John Key made millions by trading currencies, but he doesn’t seem to have a good grasp of business principles when it comes to the economics of boat people coming to New Zealand.
Those running asylum seekers from Indonesia to Australia use rickety boats, because they wouldn’t cover their costs with anything more substantial. They know the boat will be confiscated by the Australian government, and asylum seekers cannot pay a huge amount for passage.
If you look at a map the boats don’t have to travel that far across the Indian Ocean. It is another ball-game altogether for them to go thousands of miles further to the Pacific and across the stormy Tasman sea. The sort of boat required would be very expensive, and the ship provider would be unlikely to make a profit.
If one boat did happen to arrive, what would be wrong with processing the people here? We don’t need what John Key calls ‘
a [regional] facility
that we could send a ship to in the event that once came here.’
To send asylum seekers off to such as centre unprocessed would be contrary to the Refugee Convention we’ve signed up to.
Note:
For a more positive spin on refugee issues check out this stories about a former refugee who I predict will be playing for the All Whites in the not too distant future.
Refugee’s football obsession pays off