Matthew Clayfield April 17, 2009
Article from: The Australian
WHILE the vastness of Australia's coastline has always allowed for irregular movements across its borders, the history of boatpeople arriving in the country really began in the 1970s.
It was then that the term boatpeople was first used to describe groups of people who in significant numbers started making calculated and sometimes desperate efforts to reach this country's coastline.
The first wave of boatpeople arrived in Australia between April 1976 and August 1981, comprising 56 boats from Vietnam and involving about 2100 asylum seekers. Fleeing from a regime Australia had been fighting less than a decade earlier, this first wave was welcomed without too much official concern, and was processed for permanent residence on arrival.
The second wave of boatpeople began to hit our shores in November 1989 with the arrival from Cambodia of the boat Pender Bay, carrying 26 people. In 1990, two more boats arrived, carrying a total of 198 people. In 1991, six more boats brought 213 people.
In the six years from Pender Bay's arrival, about 2000 boatpeople arrived in Australia from China and Cambodia, while onshore applications for protection climbed from 1148 to 13,045. The third wave, comprising 2000 Vietnamese and Chinese boatpeople, arrived between 1994 and 1998.
The fourth and largest wave started in mid-1999. Unlike the previous waves, which were comprised predominantly of South-East Asian boatpeople, the fourth was made up of people fleeing from Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan .
The number of boatpeople arriving in Australia climbed after the election of the Howard government in 1996. Between 1996 and the Tampa incident of August 2001, an average of 39 boats a year came ashore.
In 1999, 86 boats arrived, carrying more than 4000 people. A similar number arrived again the following year. It was the first time illegal arrivals by boat had outnumbered those by plane.
Between mid-1999 and mid-2001, about 8300 boatpeople arrived in Australia -- twice as many as the total who arrived in the preceding waves.
In August 2001, the Norwegian container vessel the Tampa picked up 433 people from an overcrowded boat that was in the Indonesian maritime rescue zone and 75 nautical miles from Christmas Island. The Howard government denied the vessel permission to enter Australian waters, but on August 29 it entered anyway, and John Howard told parliament the captain had been given no choice after the boatpeople started threatening to jump overboard.
By the time of the Tampa incident, the Howard government had intelligence suggesting another 2500 people were waiting in Indonesia.
It was then that the Pacific Solution -- sending the boatpeople to Nauru -- was implemented. In 2001-02, there were 1212 illegal arrivals aboard six boats. But over the next six years, there were just eight boats.
Since August last year, when the Pacific Solution was abandoned by the Rudd Government, 379 asylum seekers have arrived aboard 12 boats.
Article from: The Australian
WHILE the vastness of Australia's coastline has always allowed for irregular movements across its borders, the history of boatpeople arriving in the country really began in the 1970s.
It was then that the term boatpeople was first used to describe groups of people who in significant numbers started making calculated and sometimes desperate efforts to reach this country's coastline.
The first wave of boatpeople arrived in Australia between April 1976 and August 1981, comprising 56 boats from Vietnam and involving about 2100 asylum seekers. Fleeing from a regime Australia had been fighting less than a decade earlier, this first wave was welcomed without too much official concern, and was processed for permanent residence on arrival.
The second wave of boatpeople began to hit our shores in November 1989 with the arrival from Cambodia of the boat Pender Bay, carrying 26 people. In 1990, two more boats arrived, carrying a total of 198 people. In 1991, six more boats brought 213 people.
In the six years from Pender Bay's arrival, about 2000 boatpeople arrived in Australia from China and Cambodia, while onshore applications for protection climbed from 1148 to 13,045. The third wave, comprising 2000 Vietnamese and Chinese boatpeople, arrived between 1994 and 1998.
The fourth and largest wave started in mid-1999. Unlike the previous waves, which were comprised predominantly of South-East Asian boatpeople, the fourth was made up of people fleeing from Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan .
The number of boatpeople arriving in Australia climbed after the election of the Howard government in 1996. Between 1996 and the Tampa incident of August 2001, an average of 39 boats a year came ashore.
In 1999, 86 boats arrived, carrying more than 4000 people. A similar number arrived again the following year. It was the first time illegal arrivals by boat had outnumbered those by plane.
Between mid-1999 and mid-2001, about 8300 boatpeople arrived in Australia -- twice as many as the total who arrived in the preceding waves.
In August 2001, the Norwegian container vessel the Tampa picked up 433 people from an overcrowded boat that was in the Indonesian maritime rescue zone and 75 nautical miles from Christmas Island. The Howard government denied the vessel permission to enter Australian waters, but on August 29 it entered anyway, and John Howard told parliament the captain had been given no choice after the boatpeople started threatening to jump overboard.
By the time of the Tampa incident, the Howard government had intelligence suggesting another 2500 people were waiting in Indonesia.
It was then that the Pacific Solution -- sending the boatpeople to Nauru -- was implemented. In 2001-02, there were 1212 illegal arrivals aboard six boats. But over the next six years, there were just eight boats.
Since August last year, when the Pacific Solution was abandoned by the Rudd Government, 379 asylum seekers have arrived aboard 12 boats.
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