Australia yesterday insisted its humanitarian program was nondiscriminatory after South Africa reacted furiously to suggestions “persecuted” white farmers could be fast-tracked into the country, as the minister involved was called a racist.
Australian Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton sparked controversy by singling out the farmers’ need to flee “horrific circumstances” for a “civilized country.”
According to police, 74 farmers were murdered from 2016 to last year in South Africa, which has one of the world’s highest crime rates.
Dutton’s decision to examine whether they deserve “special attention” for acceptance on refugee or humanitarian grounds led to South Africa summoning Australia’s envoy to Pretoria for condemnation.
South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation spokesman Ndivhuwo Mabaya demanded in a statement that Dutton retract the comments, saying that the government was offended.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull stopped short of defending his minister when pressed yesterday, insisting Australia had a nondiscriminatory humanitarian program.
“We have migrants to Australia from every part of the world ... and we have a refugee program that is nondiscriminatory,” Turnbull said. “We have a very large South African community of Australians of South African ancestry, from every background, and they make a phenomenal contribution to our very successful multicultural society.”
Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop denied there was a double standard in Dutton speaking up for white South African farmers, but not Palestinian farmers persecuted by Israel, as noted by some commentators.
“I reject that. What we do in our humanitarian visa program is assess visas on their merits and that’s what Peter Dutton as home affairs minister does every day,” she told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio.
She added that the message from Canberra to Pretoria was “that they seek to ensure the security of all their citizens.”
“We certainly urge the South African government to ensure that any changes to land ownership are not disruptive to the economy or lead to violence,” Bishop said.
South Africa has vowed to enact land “expropriation without compensation” to redress land confiscations of the colonial and apartheid era.
Dutton, who has drawn criticism in the past for cracking down on refugees from Asia and the Middle East, was called “an out-and-out racist” by Australian Greens leader Richard di Natale.
He suggested that the stance on South African farmers signaled a return to the “White Australia” policy, referring to laws in place for seven decades from 1901 that prevented nonwhite immigrants from settling in Australia.
“There’s no debate as far as I’m concerned, the bloke is an out-and-out racist,” Di Natale told reporters. “According to Peter Dutton, if you’re a white South African farmer, you are going to make a great contribution, you’re not going to bludge on welfare, but if you’re not white, you won’t do any of those things.”
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not