By Allan Wall
10/28/2015
Visiting London, Tony Abbott, who was recently ousted at Australian Prime Minister, had some advice for Europe.
Tony Abbott, the former prime minister of Australia, used his first major speech since his ouster last month to denounce Europeâs migration policies, warning in London that the continent risked âfundamentally weakening itselfâ through âmisguided altruismâ as large numbers of asylum seekers arrive. Tony Abbott, Ousted Australian Leader, Urges Europe to Take a Hard Line on Migrants, By Austin Ramzy, New York Times, Oct. 28, 2015
Thatâs a useful expression â "misguided altruism".
âAll countries that say âanyone who gets here can stay hereâ are now in peril, given the scale of the population movements that are starting to be seen,â Mr. Abbott, a conservative, said on Tuesday [the 27th] during a lecture honoring the British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.
Exactly, "the scale of the population movements". Itâs not just a trickle.
Mr. Abbott backed an aggressive policy on migration during his two years in office. The Australian authorities turned away boats and refused to accept asylum seekers intercepted at sea, instead sending them to offshore camps. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who replaced Mr. Abbott in September in a party coup, has announced no change to those policies.
Thatâs good that the Australian leadership change is not now changing the plicy Australia has a much saner policy than the United States, the United Kingdom or the European Union.
Mr. Abbott recommended the same approach for Europe. âThis means turning boats around, for people coming by sea,â he said. âIt means denying entry at the border, for people with no legal right to come. And it means establishing camps for people who currently have nowhere to go.â
European navies ought to be protecting Europe on the Mediterranean, and if necessary, carve off a section of Libya and return people there.
Such a tough policy would âgnaw at our consciences, yet it is the only way to prevent a tide of humanity surging through Europe and quite possibly changing it forever,â he said.
I wish he hadnât said that about "gnawing at consciences". It shouldnât gnaw at our consciences if we're doing the right thing.
As Geert Wilders has pointed out Middle Eastern refugees (that is, true refugees) should be dealt with in the Middle East.
Anyway, kudos to Tony Abbott for speaking out in London.