'Malaysian solution' shows compassion to forgotten refugees

Many refugee advocates argue that "there is no queue". But Prime Minister Julia Gillard this week begged to differ with this mantra.

Even the far left Greens are now saying there is a queue when it comes to bringing in skilled migrants to help with the labour shortage in the mining industry.

Gillard's deal with Malaysia, which is yet to be consummated, will see 800 people smuggler customers sent to the back of the queue.

There is no doubt that people who pay for passage with a people smuggler are desperate and that many of them will be assessed as genuine refugees.

It is high praise for Australia, a country profoundly shaped by its Christian heritage, that these people, the majority of whom are Muslim, prefer to by-pass other Muslim states such as Malaysia and Indonesia which practice Sharia Law to varying degrees, to make their new life here.

But a penniless person in Darfur, on the Thai-Burma border or living in a slum in Malaysia is also desperate.

The difference is the means to pay a people smuggler.

Because the global refugee crisis is overwhelming, the global community must find a way to help these people as justly and as fairly as possible.

Allowing people smugglers to exploit our compassion for refugees does not deliver justice to those who cannot afford to pay.

Then there are those refugees out of the media spotlight like the Christian Afghan community in New Delhi. Like Malaysia, India is not a signatory to the UN Convention on Refugees.

However, unlike Malaysia, India has given notice that it will forcibly send some Christian Afghans back to Afghanistan where they face the death penalty for the crime of converting to Christianity.

This will come as shock to most Australians who are generally proud of the fact that our military is playing a role in restoring civility to a country that once harboured Osama bin Ladin's terrorist training camps and whose barbarian Taliban rulers trampled the human rights of women and girls.