This is an excerpt from an article published by VICE Australia. Click here for the full story.

The greater, overarching theme to this story is the government’s ‘the ends justify the means’ approach to border control. Days prior to Abyan’s deportation back to Nauru, Minister Dutton referenced a “racket” of 200 asylum seekers who had been brought from offshore processing centres to Australia on medical grounds and then sought injunctions to prevent them being returned to Nauru. The government is determined not to be emotionally manipulated into giving asylum seekers an avenue of escape from Nauru and Abyan has become the political shuttlecock in this struggle.

In this particular case, Mr Dutton has made a mistake. Abyan is a poor choice to make an example of and Mr Dutton’s implication that asylum seekers who try whatever means they can to escape the hell-hole of Nauru are acting illegally or dishonestly is distasteful. If we continue to believe that cruel treatment in offshore processing is the only way to manage our borders then Mr Dutton may have a point. However, the notion that “we are saving lives at sea” is being lost in the countless horrifying stories of abuse that leak into Australian living rooms via the mouths of Australian whistleblowers despite the government’s best efforts to threaten them with jail terms. During my time in Nauru I learned to distrust the government’s philosophy that the greater good overrides the individual. I’m glad to see that more and more Australians are learning the same lesson.

This is an excerpt from an article published by VICE Australia. Click here for the full story.