Seeking Refugee Status

OFFICIAL #1 (Yawning and stretching) How many more? I want to go home.

Official #2 Only one more application and that’s it for the day. A family. Man, woman, child. Seeking refugee status here. They have no papers, but say they face persecution and death if they return to their own country.

What sort of persecution? Religious? Political?

Political. They claim their son’s life is in danger. He will be killed if they return home.

Only the son? Who are these people? What do our contacts say about them?

No one has any knowledge or record of them.

What about the boy? How old is he?

Difficult to say. About 2 years old I guess

And who’ s going to kill him?

The army

Any facts to verify this?

Again difficult to say. Our contacts have mentioned an alleged incident where all the baby boys were killed. But we haven’t been able to verify it .

So how did these people escape?

The man said he had been warned to leave prior to the incident. He said he was told in a …a dream.

Dream! Rubbish! He knows more than he’s telling us. He must have contacts somewhere. What about the wife? What sort of parents would take a young child on such a hazardous journey across such dangerous terrain?

I don’ t know. People who are desperate?

Their story sounds pretty thin to me. Anyone to corroborate it? Have they got any money? Not much, I bet. Probably spent it all getting here. But they must have been well off to afford getting this far.

I don’t know. He says he’s a carpenter. And he’s willing to work.  He could possibly adapt his skills.

And put our own people out of work? No. I guarantee he’ll expect our people to support him. And then there’s the woman and child. And we know why they came along, don’t we?

Because they’re a family?

You are so naive. They add sympathy to their plight!  Look, I don’t like this. There are plenty of other countries closer than us they could have gone to. Why did they choose here?

I don’t know. Perhaps because it’s safe.

I’ll tell you why. They just want to share the economic benefits of our country. These people are here solely for a better life. Persecution. What garbage! They should accept their lot in life and live in their own country.

But…

They’ re just queue jumpers, illegals, probably criminals. They should have waited in line like everybody else, gone through the correct channels and been processed properly.

But the correct channels have been cut back. And they’re so slow. It takes years for people to get the proper accreditation. Besides, if your life is threatened, you’re hardly going to apply ‘officially ‘to leave the country, are you?

I don’ t care, it’s time to make a stand. We’ve had too many of these people crossing our borders. By the way, what’s their religion?

They’re seem to be a God-fearing couple.

Well we don’t want them here indoctrinating our people with their religion. Let’s get this straight. These people have arrived on our doorstep –illegally. No papers, no money. No proof or record of persecution. No one to back up their story. I see no reason to grant them refugee status. We are a decent, caring people, but we’ve been the good guys for too long. These people are just taking advantage of us. Send them back where they came from. We have no room for any more illegals in this country. We have enough rubbish in this country already. We don’t want any more.

But what about the threats?

Threats! Rubbish! We must send a strong message to these people that our nation is not a soft touch. We’ll start now and make an example of this family. Refugee status denied!  Send them back where they came from.

But what happens if any harm comes to the child?

It’s my guess nothing will. What makes him so special? Besides, who cares? They’re only peasants. It’s hardly as if this one child will make any difference to the world, is it? Give me the papers – “Joseph Davidson, wife Mary and son Jesus – denied refugee status” (he stamps the papers and marches out of the office)

Just in case you’d forgotten that Jesus was a refugee in Egypt once…

[thanks to Refugee Services, Aotearoa, New Zealand, for this]