Australians Want PM to Be Tougher on Boat People [0 Would Give "Path To Citizenship"]

CANBERRA (Reuters) - New opinion polls added pressure on Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd Monday to take a tougher stand against asylum-seekers and end a standoff involving 78 boat-people picked up by an Australian ship off Indonesia.

The stream of boats arriving in Australia this year has reignited a divisive political debate over illegal immigration and forced Rudd to defend his border-security policy, which critics say has been softened and is attracting more arrivals.

A poll published in the Age and Sydney Morning Herald dailies found the issue had hurt Rudd, with his disapproval rating rising five percentage points in the space of a month to 28 percent.

However, government support dropped only 1 percent in the month to 56 percent on a two-party basis compared to 44 percent for the opposition, meaning Rudd remains well ahead.

A separate Newspoll in the Australian newspaper Monday also found the asylum-seeker issue had damaged Rudd's standing, with 53 percent of respondents saying he was doing a bad job on the policy and 46 percent saying his approach was too soft.

Indonesia, Australia and Canada(with ties) all have the same problem over Sri Lankan asylum seekers. Some of the migrants, who were rescued in Indonesia's search and rescue zone, had already been classified as refugees as living in Indonesia for up to 5 years.

The recent crisis of Sri Lankan boat people began with the detection of a boatload of 255 Sri Lankans in Indonesian waters on October 17.

These people are still on board the boat they were detected in, the Sunday Times learns. Meanwhile, a Foreign Ministry official said on Friday that it has received information from the Sri Lankan embassy in Jakarta that that ‘Alex’ the person who introduced himself as the spokesman for the 255 boat people was a member of the ‘Kannan Gang’ notorious for street fights in Canada. He had been deported from Canada in 2003, after being arrested for being a trouble-maker.

“Alex had been involved in human smuggling for a long time and it is believed that his office is based in India. His brother who is in Canada is also reportedly involved in human smuggling, and Canadian Mounted Police are hunting for him,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

uneducated..for one.
The 49’ers flocked in from everywhere to flourish in the Gold Rush days. These people were not interested in getting just gold; they were interested in the American Dream of Freedom. There was not as much crime then and they respected the other's claims for a few years (I know, the movies play for the Wild Wild West).
They worked when they wanted, spent what they made and towns grew and flourished.
But then an egg went for $3, an onion for $2. Flour $800 a barrel.
Then they returned to their homelands, or got into some form of business in their new home
Things haven't changed much. There is always The American Dream of prosperity and freedom.

Bad apples in this case mix in with the downtrodden and prey on the "hopeless".

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