Australia’s federal government has acknowledged today that it is growing increasingly concerned about what it describes as a disturbing influx of “plane people” into the country.
Australian immigration minister Scott Morrison said today that the latest figures provided to the Government show a disquieting number of foreign-sounding names gaining access to the country via aircraft.
Australia has faced numerous immigration and border issues in recent years, most notably from a once-thought-mythical race of boat people, whose arrival on the country’s northern shores brought with it crime and the potential to take the jobs of as many as five Australians.
The Coalition Government, led by Prime Minister Tony Abbott, has taken a tough stance on boats, vowing to turn back any vessels that reach mainland Australia, and banning video games and films that threaten to expose children to boats at a young age.
Morrison warned today that while boat people had been tantamount to a “crisis” in the Northern Territories, they may pale in comparison to the potential impact of plane people.
“Boats arrive slowly, and our radar coverage is such that it tends to pick them up fairly early on in the piece,” explained Morrison. “Most of the time, we’re able to intercept them before they get anywhere near our shores. Occasionally, they will reach us, but even then, they often smash themselves against the rocks, and while they might struggle for a bit, they usually end up all dying. So that sort of takes care of itself.
“Plane people, on the other hand, arrive swiftly, and in large numbers. There’s often very little we can do about it.”
Morrison said that as many as 1,000 boat people had arrived in Australia this year, while people entering the country via planes numbered in the “lots more.”
Asked if he had the exact figures on hand, Morrison checked both his palms, and replied “No.”
“We can assure the public of Australia that, while they should panic, they should only panic a little bit,” he said. “The Government is working swiftly, and in concert with numerous agencies, to develop solutions to what we understand is a very new problem.
“In the interim, our concerns revolve primarily around the issues of crime and the protection of jobs for hard-working Australians.”
Morrison said that the threat of criminal activity from plane people was “extremely high,” with as many as 97% of convicted criminals having had a history of flying on aircraft.
He added that an influx of potential immigrants via plane threatened to reduce the pool of jobs available to the average Australian, saying that poor, malnourished and uneducated immigrants had an unfair employment advantage, due to their “superior skills and knowledge.”
Morrison said he would be meeting with the Prime Minister later this afternoon, and recommending that Australia take caution in the ongoing search for missing Malaysian jetliner MH370, as requests from a South East Asian country to find a plane “do seem awfully suspicious,” and may be a trap.