One Nation supporters are again facing criticism for celebrating the Socceroos at the World Cup, after a prominent lawyer and refugee advocate argued they should stay quiet.
Sarah Dale, centre director and principal lawyer at the Refugee Advice and Casework Service, delivered the rebuke in a Sydney Morning Herald column titled Under Hanson, Socceroos heroes would never have called Australia home.
In the piece, Dale pointed to Socceroos young gun Nestory Irankunda and his spectacular goal against Turkey as a powerful example of Australia’s migrant story. “This was a goal that began in a refugee camp,” she wrote.
Dale said the team’s success reflected the benefits of a multicultural Australia. “The Socceroos’ victory is what happens when we embrace, celebrate and foster a truly multicultural vision of Australia,” she wrote.
She also warned that the environment for refugees is becoming more hostile, arguing that stories like Irankunda’s may become harder to repeat. “But the alarming reality is that hostility towards refugees such as Irankunda and his family is growing fast. The pathway to safety that brought them to Australia is rapidly closing,” she wrote.
Lawyer Sarah Dale Refugee Advice and Casework Service (pictured) has blasted One Nation supporters who are backing the Socceroos at the World Cup despite the party’s stance on mass immigration and refugees
Dale pointed out that Socceroos stars including Nestory Irankunda (left) and Mohamed Touré (right, celebrating Irankunda’s goal against Turkey) were born in refugee camps
Dale’s column comes after figures from Labor and the Greens told Aussies that their support for Pauline Hanson’s party disqualifies them from barracking for the Socceroos
Her message to One Nation supporters was blunt: if they back policies that would shut out refugees, they should not claim the success stories that those same refugees help create.
‘Those who celebrate the Socceroos’ win while opposing the arrival of refugees and immigrants into Australia now have two options,’ Dale wrote.
‘The first is silence because there really is no counterargument to the proof that refugees and migrants are real Australians and do make noteworthy contributions to our country.
‘The second is to argue that people like Irankunda came [to Australia] “the right way”.
‘This is a false and toxic framing about what a person must do in fleeing for their lives, what parents must do to protect their children. There is no single static way to access safety in Australia.
‘It’s legal to seek asylum. It’s legal to seek asylum in Australia – but it’s bloody hard.’
Dale said the ‘untold story’ behind Irankunda’s goal is ‘the heroism his parents demonstrated in fleeing Burundi and surviving a refugee camp in Tanzania’.
She pointed out that One Nation policy is to withdraw Australia from the 1951 Refugee Convention, which she said would ‘dictate that Irankunda, Touré, Mabil and Degenek would probably never have made it to Australia, let alone be the sporting greats we are celebrating’.
One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce (pictured with Hanson on Wednesday) hit back at the wave of criticism regarding the party and the Aussie team
Socceroos star Awer Mabil was also born in a refugee camp. Dale said if One Nation’s immigration policies were implemented, he and some of his teammates ‘would probably never have made it to Australia’
Dale’s column follows figures from Labor and the Greens telling One Nation voters they shouldn’t be supporting the Socceroos.
Former ALP member of parliament John Kennedy and ex-Greens candidate Hannah Thomas both posted messages telling One Nation backers their support for the party disqualifies them from cheering on the Aussie team.
‘One Nation would deport half the Socceroos and defund SBS [the World Cup host broadcaster] so we couldn’t even watch them,’ Thomas wrote.
‘Gentle reminder that if you enjoyed that win today, you shouldn’t be on team Pauline.’
One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce hit back at the wave of criticism, which increased when the Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party Facebook account posted a message congratulating the Socceroos on the victory over Turkey.
‘I would suggest that every person in Australia at some stage has immigrant blood in them,’ Joyce told Sky News.
‘Unless you’re Aboriginal, and most Aboriginal people have got genetics from other places as well.
‘It’s not about being an immigrant, it’s about being a person who’s going to fit into Australia and work within the guardrails of our expectations.
‘Those guardrails are what protects the liberty and freedoms of other people, otherwise if you follow a philosophy that’s more attuned to where you came from and is not tempered by the fact you’re now in Australia, then it would be best if you had never left that place.’
