refugees

[John Pruden]

do we have to take in a man with 6 wife's some under age as young as 12 years old when its against the laws of our land BUT WE DO or the race card comes out?? jp

[j.sabourn]

About 1968 I joined a ship the Maratha Endeavour (may have put this up before). In Philadelphia on getting up in the morning about 15 of the Chinese seamen were gone, even though the ship employed Pinkerton guards(3) at bow stern and gangway to prevent. There was a 10,000 dollar bond on every one of them. Years later got the full story as received an invite in Hong Kong by the Chinese Bosun who skinned out at the time. The chinese loved the states as a huge money earner to them. Used to jump ship through an organisation in Hong Kong called the Happy Villagers Association, they then received various employment in the states in various eating houses and laundrys. After a couple of years they used to hand themselves in to the authorities and were returned to H.K. where they hoped to be set up money wise for life. The Indian crews was always their ambition to live in the UK where if I remember correctly they could enter legally if they had been educated enough to realize. Apart from British seamen having the reputation of being wont to jump in the Antipodes there were others such as Scandanavians did also, as I sailed with them also out here. Illegal immigration has been going on all through my lifetime but certainly not to the excesses of today. It is now a world wide problem and has to be stopped, if only for health reasons alone, and the spread of certain diseases that had been wiped out, but are now shown signs of returning. For example Smallpox and T.B. among others. JS

[happy daze john in oz]

John you are right about the matter of disease. If these people are not correctly administered and fully cheked medical who knmows what they may bring into the country.
Polio, a disease we thought had gone along with TB, has been noticed in some North Africa states. Who knows what else could be out there waiting to strike, carriers at times do not know they are until it is too late.

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi John.
A couple of years ago a Vietnamese woman who came out on a family reunion visa was found to have a new and so far incurable TB, don't know what happened to her but just shows we cannot just open the borders. When I emigrated I had to have an xray and full medical check up.
Cheers Des

[j.sabourn]

Des I came here a long time after you. I didn't come out like a lot did years ago, but was all of 1991. I had to pay for all my own medicals privately as the NHI wasn't going to pay for me leaving the country under my own steam. This consisted of tests for Aids, Venereal Disease, Tests and X-rays for TB, and a GP to give a report and general assessment on your Health. I had shadows around the lung areas as many of that era did, as TB was common in our early years and if you were in contact with anyone sometimes caused scarring. For the first 8 years out here I had to go for X-Rays annually to see there was no change. Had to sign a paper that I would and could not claim anything in regard to money if got into strife. Had to produce evidence that I could support my wife and family, by someone living in Australia, I had contact with someone in UK who had contact with a Superintendent in Adelaide Steamship Company and he supplied me with a letter saying I would or should not, have any trouble in finding employment. Paid my own removal and all transport costs. Have never received a penny from the Australian Government apart from my part old age pension which was duly paid for via taxes etc. My wife had to undergo the same medicals. I have a sister and nephews and nieces who came out here as 10 pound poms years ago so this gave me a couple of extra points, think the pass point then was 90, think I got 91. Although a lot of trouble and a bit of hardship still think it was the best move I ever made. However when I saw all these boatloads of so called refugees going to use Australia as a dumping ground got a bit politically carried away and still do. Would do exactly the same thing over again but earlier if I had the choice. Cheers John S

[Captain Kong]

In Miami Airport on the evening of 4 January this year six planes landed one after each other and over 2000 Cubans landed in the airport at the same time as us
It took us over five hours to clear immigration and then another three hours to find our bags, The carousels were overloaded and thousands of bags stacked all over the floor of the hall. It was total chaos..
More than Eight hours to get out of the Airport.
Brian.