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When you are in a position like that – you have enemy behind you and you have the wave in front of you – probably you gonna choose the wave instead of the enemy. And when you die, you gonna die and you will be like a food for the fish, instead of being tortured by your own people.
“Stopping the boats” – preventing asylum seekers arriving by sea – is one of the most fraught topics in Australian politics and most of the time it comes out in two soundbites: saving lives at sea and securing the country’s borders.
In this episode, Aziz tells us what it feels like to make that journey, and why he made the decision to get on a boat bound for Australia. What was going through his mind? Did he know what he was letting himself in for before he stepped on board?
We also hear from somebody with a unique perspective to offer – because it was his job to stop the boats. The former immigration department official Greg Lake talks about the extraordinary lengths to which he was asked to go to carry out government policy – and why he ultimately walked away from the task.
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