Smuggler...
• What does this word make you think of?
• How does it make you feel?
Discuss for a moment with the person next
to you.
People Smuggling
Our prompt
Remember, the prompt that is at the core of
our unit of study is “asylum seekers are a
threat to Australia”.
One of the aspects of this most considered
threatening is “people smuggling”.
People Smuggling Definition
• The facilitation,
transportation,
attempted
transportation or illegal
entry of a person or
persons across an
international border, in
violation of one or more
of the countries laws,
either clandestinely or
through deception, such
as the use of fraudulent
documents.
• People smuggling generally takes place
with the consent of the persons being
smuggled, and common reasons include
employment and economic opportunity,
personal and/or familial betterment and
escape from persecution and conflict.
• People smugglers are paid money (often
large sums) to transport people across
borders at their wish.
Human Trafficking
• Is when this occurs without the
consent of the individuals being
transported. People are transported
involuntarily through deception and
force.
Reasons for smuggling
• Escaping poverty
• Seeking opportunities
• Escaping natural disaster, conflict
(war, civil war) or persecution
How is people smuggling a threat
to Australia?
• There are serious security and criminal concerns
when people arriving in Australia are not
properly identified.
• There are major quarantine and health risks
involved in people bypassing normal immigration
channels.
• Processing illegal immigrants creates significant
logistical problems and costs
• It infringes Australia’s sovereignty, giving us less
control over our borders.
How is it tackled in Australia?
• The AFP and Department of Immigration and
Citizenship established a People Smuggling
Strike Team (PSST) in 2000.
• The team is responsible for investigating and
stopping people smuggling operations.
• Since Sept. 2008 there has been a spike in
people smuggling activity. Passengers are
predominately Afghan, Iranian, Iraqi and Sri
Lankan nationalities.
The other side of the story...
• Successive Australian governments have used people
smuggling to attempt to criminalise asylum seekers
themselves. People associate people smuggling with illegal
activity, when it is not illegal to claim asylum at all.
• The penalties for people smuggling offences – up to 20 years
jail for boats carrying more than five passengers – are now at
the level of such crimes as terrorism, rape and murder, just for
assisting asylum seekers (remember, seeking asylum is not
illegal).
• The vast majority of people prosecuted under the
people smuggling laws are the poor Indonesian fisher
folk who crew the asylum boats. Between May 2009
and April 2010, only six alleged organizers were
charged with offences compared to 347 crew
members between 9 October 2008 and 10 March
2011.
• The evidence is that Indonesian crew are paid, “on
average $200 [or] as little as $60″ for the journey. But
mandatory sentences, of a minimum five years jail (of
which three years must be served before any chance
of parole) are being increasingly attacked by judges
themselves for failing to account for the actual
circumstances of those charged.
http://www.sbs.com.au/goback/schools/tutorial/179/clip-7
Wiki Post 2.