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15.
Australian Government and people have no obligation towards
them and we must see their position as being in the same
category as other persons seeking entry without having gone
through our selection processes. To act in any other way would
be inconsistent with the immigration principles I referred to
earlier, and unjust to applicants who wish to come here and
accept unfavourable decisions. There are many thousands of
relatives of Australians who at present are unable to come to
Australia.
No person who is not a refugee can decide for himself
or herself to enter Australia. Even refugees have to recognise
that refugee status alone does not guarantee permanent residence
in this country. To go one step further, while, as the
responsible Minister, I will always endeavour to act with
compassion and apply our policy equitably, I cannot guarantee
that persons will be allowed to enter and remain in this country
if they are not refugees and do not meet the requirements for
residence in Australia.
A particularly difficult problem is raised by the larger
ships which have brought thousands of refugees to some ports
outside Vietnam. It is completely inconsistent with behaviour
as a responsible member of the international community for any
country to offload large numbers of people who are not wanted in
their homeland. This type of behaviour is an outrage to humanity
and represents the cynical exploitation of the humanitarian
response by nations such as Australia. As a form of blackmail
it is inimical to good relations among nations and totally
inconsistent with the civil rights of individuals.
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