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July 14th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda The surge in boat arrivals is hampering the government’s efforts to resettle refugees from camps around the world, Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury says.
Australia has granted about 13,500 humanitarian visas each year since 2006/07, but the number of special humanitarian (offshore) approvals has dropped while the onshore component has increased, according to data from the Department of Immigration.
In 2006/07, 5,183 special humanitarian (offshore) visas were granted with 1,793 for onshore applicants.
For 2010/11, the offshore approvals dropped to 2,973 while onshore grants rose to 4,828.
“Increasingly as our special humanitarian programs start to become absorbed by those who arrive here by boat, that is subverting the ability of the government to make these judgments about who might be worthy of resettlement in Australia,” Mr Bradbury told Sky News on Saturday.
Nearly 5,000 suspected asylum seekers have been intercepted on boats en route to Australia this year.
Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said in an opinion piece on Saturday that supporting the offshore processing of refugee claims was the most compassionate approach due to its fairness for applicants.
Mr Bowen said many refugees in his western Sydney electorate of McMahon have expressed their support for policies that deter boat journeys and to give more places to people in refugee camps overseas.
“The constituents I speak to every day – who came to Australia as refugees and who still have relatives in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, patiently but desperately waiting for the chance of a new life in Australia – are to me a pretty good guide as to whether our refugee policy is operating fairly,” Mr Bowen said in The Australian.
Both major parties support the offshore processing of asylum seekers but differ on location.
The government has proposed Malaysia while the opposition favours nations which were signatories to the UN’s refugee convention.
The Australian Greens oppose offshore processing.
Greens immigration spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young said increasing Australia’s humanitarian intake from Indonesia and Malaysia would offer a safer pathway for those contemplating boarding a boat to Australia.
Last month, Senator Hanson-Young said the refugee intake should be increased to 25,000 a year.
“It would reduce the numbers of people boarding boats,” she told reporters in Adelaide on Saturday.
Mr Bowen recently said the Greens’ approach on asylum seekers was “naive”.
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