I was disgusted to read the results of a
recent poll which suggested that 60 per cent of Australians want the Abbott
government to treat asylum seekers more harshly and only 30 per cent believe
that most asylum seekers are genuine refugees.[1] However, I was not surprised,
considering that the demonisation of asylum seekers is loud and frequent across
a range of institutions from which the Australian public forms its opinions. Both the Coalition and Labor parties
consistently treat asylum seekers as scapegoats for political gain, while much
of the mainstream media (and other institutions) reinforce the notion that
asylum seekers are illegal, menacing, economic migrants. As a gay man speaking to other gay men,
I don’t need to tell you that representations matter. Most of us grew up exposed to many negative and narrow
stereotypes about what it means to be gay.
Late last year, I wrote about SBS Dateline’s representation of asylum
seekers in their segment ‘Village of Tears’ (Screening 01/10/13), a short 6
minute report on the sinking of an asylum seeker boat off the coast of
Indonesia, on its way to Australia.
I argued that Dateline falsely
and narrowly represented asylum seekers as merely economic migrants. A month later, ABC’s Four Corners ran a story, ‘Trading
Misery’ (18/11/13), a more in-depth, 46-minute piece focusing on the topic of people
smuggling from Lebanon.
Interestingly, the Four Corners
report features the same village and family that were the focus of the Dateline story. Here, I will examine some major
differences between the ABC and SBS coverage. I will comment on the way the shows contribute to different narratives,
Dateline, racist, simplistically and
insidiously reinforcing asylum seekers as economic migrants, and Four Corners, proving a more complex, balanced
and considered account of the asylum seeker experience.
Four
Corners provides considerable background to the
reason why people seek asylum. It reveals
that since the 1970s, people from Northern Lebanon have been emigrating to
Australia. The journalist explains
that many have escaped this impoverished, dangerous region, where kidnapping
and violence are getting worse. Four Corners reveals that the village of
Qabeit, the focus of the Dateline
story, is less than 50 kilometers away from the war in Syria. The narrator says, “it’s obvious why
people would be desperate to leave”.
Filmed in the same village, but on a sunny and
peaceful looking day, the Dateline
segment emphasises that it is poverty that is forcing the people of Qabeit to
seek a better life in Australia. There
is no mention of the proximity of Qabeit to Syria, the increasing violence in
the village, or that dangerous conditions mean that the people of the village
cannot get to Beirut for work. Dateline presents the villagers as nothing
other than potential economic migrants. Emily Howie notes that,
“boat migrants expressed livelihood issues,
concerns for their own and their family’s safety, fear of sexual violence, fear
of being arrested and detained, discrimination in the job market, poor
employment and educational opportunities, land acquisitions and exclusions, the
need for medical treatment, the fear of war returning, harassment and
interrogation by security forces, fear of reprisals for political activity or
speech, the need to secure their family’s financial future and the need to rise
above the financial hole they
found themselves in”.[2]
While Howie writes about asylum seekers
fleeing Sri Lanka, her article provides an overview of the range of circumstances
facing asylum seekers around the world, issues that over overlooked by the Dateline story.
Dateline encourages the viewer to place blame on the father, Hussein Koder, for
the death of his family in the boat sinking tragedy. Dateline achieves
this by reinforcing popular negative stereoypes of Middle-Eastern men as irrational
and misogynistic. Four Corners uses interviews with the
same man, Koder, and we see him in a more sympathetic light. A number of asylum seekers are also interviewed,
reinforcing claims that they were told that the boat that would take them to
Australia would be safe and well-equipped. In contrast, Dateline,
suggests that Koder knew that the journey to Australia would threaten the life
of his family. Four Corners does not deny that Koder
paid $80 000 in cash, in his attempt to get his wife and eight children to
Australia, but it is only on Four Corners
that we learn that Koder was deceived by the smugglers, who promised to fly
(not ship) his family from Indonesia to Australia. After spending 2.5 months with his family in Jakarta, Koder
reveals that the offer to fly his family from Indonesia to Australia had fallen
through, but he was again deceived by people smugglers. He was shown pictures of a large,
seaworthy ship that was going to take them from Indonesia to Australia. These
vital pieces of information were absent from the Dateline report.
Instead of blaming Hussein for the tragedy, Four Corners helps me identify with his experience. I too would flee a life-threatening
environment that offered no future for my children.
While Dateline
focuses on the plight of a single family, Four
Corners interviews a number of people that were involved in the boat
tragedy. Four Corners presents a family in Tripoli, living on the most
violent street in Lebanon, a frontline between warring Sunni and Shia neighbourhoods. The mother and the remaining son (the
father and the other two sons died when the boat sank) return home to Tripoli, but
the son no longer sleeps at home because it is too dangerous. The journalist provides a tour of the
woman’s house and we see dozens of bullet holes in the inside walls. By including the experience of the
family in Tripoli, Four Corners gives
a more rounded example of life in Northern Lebanon, where people are not just
fleeing poverty, but live under constant threat for their lives.
After the boat sank, accusations emerged
that Australian authorities ignored distress calls from the asylum seekers. Dateline
(and the Australian media) provides little evidence of the asylum seekers’
claims that Australia refused to respond to their calls for help. In contrast, Four Corners confirms that Christmas
Island ocean patrol communicated directly with the passengers before the
tragedy unfolded. It is revealed
that the asylum seekers sent a GPS reading from Koder’s phone. We learn that Australian rescue planes
received (and responded to) this reading, but were refused entry to Indonesian
air space. Hours later, the boat was hit by a large wave and capsized, which
eventuated in the drowning of 44 of the 72 people on board. It will be
interesting to explore the investigation into the claims of ignored phone
calls. The revelation of a refusal
of entry into Indonesian air space suggests that the tragedy may have been
avoidable. These vital pieces of
information also challenge the incessant blame Dateline prescribes to Hussein Koder.
When we are witness to supposedly credible
journalism like Dateline representing
asylum seekers as opportunistic economic migrants, it is no surprise that the
Australian public hate asylum seekers.
It is predictable that we stand back and let the government treat asylum
seekers in ways that have been condemned by the United Nations. As a gay man, I remember representations
of sexuality and gender that were used to deliberately ridicule and victimise
those who do not fit neatly into heterosexual, white, male ideal (and those who
benefit from this hegemonic masculinity.
I am aware that scapegoating effects the lives of real people, shaping
the consciousness of the public. I
hope to undertake more research into the way in which the institutions which powerfully
inform us both misrepresent asylum seekers and undertake underlying racism.
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