BF2S Forums Australian politics thread.

Dilbert_X wrote:

I did.

If people have thousands of dollars to pay people smugglers why don't they invest it in a business instead?

AN alleged people-smuggler who arrived in Australia as an asylum-seeker was part of an "extensive" overseas criminal network and was found with $25,000 in cash when arrested at an Adelaide detention centre.
At an extradition hearing in Adelaide Magistrates Court yesterday, Ewaz Ali Rezaie, 45, was alleged to be a key player in an international people-smuggling syndicate.

News that Mr Rezaie, known in Jakarta as Haji Muhammad, had entered Australia while posing as a refugee was revealed by The Australian, which reported more than two weeks ago that the ethnic Hazara had arrived with his two sons and a relative of his wife on January 19.

Magistrate Paul Foley yesterday refused a bail application for Mr Rezaie to return to immigration detention, ordering him into the custody of a federal police officer who flew with him to Melbourne last night.

Prosecutor Jillian Smith told the court there were two separate sets of allegations.

One set related to a charge of aggravated people-smuggling, where it is alleged he helped five people illegally enter Australia aboard vessel number 287, which carried 181 passengers and three crew, on December 6 last year.

Ms Smith said there were two witnesses on that boat who would identify him as "Haji Hussein, their people-smuggler".

They were also able to provide details about meetings at the Mediterranean Hotel in Jakarta where the smuggling operation was organised.

The second set of allegations related to Mr Rezaie attempting to organise a deal to smuggle a four-member family into Australia. Ms Smith said that deal did not proceed because the father of the family decided to use a different people-smuggler in Indonesia to get into Australia.

"But still negotiations were carried out and he was able to identify this man as 'Haji Hussein'," she said.

Defence counsel Michael Lutt did not oppose extradition for Mr Rezaie but asked that he be transferred to Melbourne through the immigration detention system rather than in police custody.

Mr Lutt said Mr Rezaie's wife and two sons, aged 15 and 11, had been with him in the Inverbrackie detention centre in the Adelaide Hills since January and the court was told they were currently in a holding facility in preparation for transfer to Melbourne.

"He does very much dispute these charges and would prefer if possible to remain in a detention facility rather than a prison," Mr Lutt said.

Ms Smith opposed bail, telling the court Mr Rezaie could intimidate witnesses in detention facilities throughout the country and arrange an escape.

She said he had previously used a false passport to travel from Pakistan to Indonesia.

"It is alleged that he's in the business of people-smuggling and he has an extensive network both within and outside of Australia," she said. "In addition he does have financial means. There was $25,000 in cash seized from Inverbrackie yesterday. This was recorded as being brought by his son to Australia on the boat 299."

Ty wrote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOI_skq5TuM

Boom.

Dilbert_X wrote:

Ty wrote:

Completely disagree Dilbert. Maybe if you went to a detention centre your opinion would change. Yes there are people smugglers and pirates among them but if you want to see the real economic migrants who just move to Australia to seek a better socio-economic situation and lifestyle for themselves instead of making the most of the opportunities they have at home you need look no further than myself and my fellow New Zealanders. The only difference is that we come by plane.

Either way they're economic migrants, not refugees or entitled to asylum under the law.

Dilbert_X wrote:

I know they're coming from shitty lives, especially the New Zealanders, but if they do it illegally bad luck.

Dilbert_X wrote:

I saw the UK turn to shit under the weight of immigrants, I'd like to keep things as they are here, me being an immigrant notwithstanding.

Dilbert_X wrote:

On Gina Rinehart: She has said that she sees herself as a white knight saviour to Fairfax but has threatened to sell her stake if she is not given three seats on the board. There's a really obvious fat joke in that.

Clive Palmer, Gina Rinehart - who's going to be obnoxious whining fat bastard of the year?

Ty wrote:

Are you sure you watched the Clarke and Dawe thing?

Most of the time I'd say people fleeing their own counties would only have the option of taking illegal routes. Illegal or not the ones who come by boat are byinlarge genuine and legitimate asylum seekers. This is what they are deemed to be after exhaustive investigation while they are in mandatory detention too, not just because they look a bit down in the dumps.

As an economic immigrant yourself you really shouldn't be talking.

Also, Australia is suffering a skills shortage at the moment and is actively seeking skilled migrants. So there's that. Given the very small number of asylum seekers that Australia take in overall it seems downright nasty that they'll turn away refugees with one hand and welcome 'economic migrants' with the other.