Essay:On "illegal" immigration to Australia

Okay, so this essay is part of a thingy my brother had to write for school a couple of years ago (he's turning thirteen this year) regarding immigration. He had to include a section regarding the current issues going on with immigration, and argue for his own opinion on the "Stop the Boats" thing. I came across it, and, after reading it, I was like "dude, that's awesome. Mind if I share it with some of my Internet friends if I give you credit?", and he was like "go ahead, just don't use my name". And so here it is, exactly the same. He didn't use "in text" referencing (he was in primary school), and, at the moment, I'm too fucking lazy to do them properly myself. So, anyway, enough rambling, here's what he wrote.

Illegal immigration to Australia

"A current issue in Australia is the course of action taken by the government regarding immigrants and asylum seekers, particularly those that come to Australia by boat. Currently, the course of action taken is that asylum seekers who are found in boats are sent to Christmas Island, followed by Nauru, to be processed. The general idea behind this is to stop people from coming by dangerous boats. However, if these people are fleeing persecution, they will likely not have any other choice. Also being debated is whether these asylum seekers, or 'boat people' (as they are commonly referred to as) should be allowed into Australia without the commonly required legal documents, such as visas and passports. However, Australia has signed a document called the UN refugee convention, which states that if people are found to be escaping persecution, they are to be allowed into the country, regardless of whether they possess visas or not (it can be unsafe or simply impossible to receive them in the country of persecution), or of how they came into the country. For this reason, the course of action that involves sending these 'boat people' to detention centres is, in fact, a violation of this UN treaty.

Also going around in debates about the subject matter is that asylum seekers travelling by boat are 'queue-jumpers', and take places away from 'genuine' refugees. However, this is fallacious, as arriving in boats does not make them any less of refugees, and there is no queue to be jumped. Also worth mentioning is that asylum seekers are not migrants, as, by definition, migrants are people who choose to leave their country, while asylum seekers are forced to leave due to persecution, and can not simply return whenever they like.

Finally, many people believe that Australia takes 'more than it's fair share of boat people'; however, Australia usually only receives 500-5000 refugees each year.

Most of whom arrive by aeroplane."

Mah Bro (2012), Part C: Illegal migration to Australia, in Migration to Australia.

Commentary

From the references I checked, and researched, everything in this essay is factual. It is very disturbing not only that this course of action is taking place, but also that an eleven year old knows more of his shit than the federal government. Just if you're curious, my brother, as a matter of fact, got an A+ for this paper, and, when you consider that he was only in Grade 6 at the time, you can really understand why. Also, I really love the way he emphasises the last sentence, which really drives the whole thing home. So anyway, yeah. This is my first RW essay, and I know that it's not my own work, but I guess it's a place to start. All credits to my little brother, I don't take credit for anything except for the introduction and comments.