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Australia Deals With Human Smuggling

For the people in Australia, immigration issues have always been an important matter to be concerned about. After all, immigration has long since been an integral part of the country's affairs. Thus, anything happening here will definitely stir up a discussion.

And in here, one of the biggest concerns with regards to immigration is the issue of people smuggling. Indeed, every year there are thousands of people who arrive into the country through these illegal routes. And because of the perceived security threats that many of these illegal immigrants bring into Australia, the government is adamant to come up with a solution for the problem.

It is interesting to note that the matter of people smuggling is inextricably linked with another major Australian concern with regards to immigration, that of refugees and asylum seekers. To better understand the link between these two issues, one must look deeper into them.

As many of the the refugees and asylum seekers coming into Australia are fleeing a difficult condition (e.g. conflicts, persecution, harsh economic situation), they often have no way to access proper means of immigration. Thus, they are forced to seek other ways of gaining entry into Australia. And this is where they can easily fall pray to people smugglers who sweet talk them with promises of easy entry into the country, often in exchange for ridiculously large sums of money.

However, while refugees indeed have the right to be treated fairly in accordance with international law, the same can not be said about the smugglers. Thus the Australian government is seeking methods of combating people smuggling while helping asylum seekers out of the situation. One of these ways is introducing tougher laws designed to deal with the matter.

One of the laws passed this year against people smugglers imposes a more severe punishment for those will be caught. People caught engaging or aiding in people smuggling will now be subjected to prison terms of anywhere from ten to twenty years. Australian authorities are now also closely coordinating with the governments of Indonesia and Malaysia to stop smuggling syndicates who often use these two countries as transition routes for their operations.

On the other hand, immigration officials assured asylum seekers that, while these laws are intended to stop human smuggling operation, these will not prevent them from seeking a better life in Australia. They also urged these asylum seekers to follow proper immigration procedures to ensure their own safety instead of going to smugglers. With that, the immigration department has also started to make refugee processing much quicker for the benefit of these asylum seekers.

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