Refugee With Infectious Disease Should Not Be Allowed In Australia

Question: Discuss about the Refugee With Infectious Disease Should Not Be Allowed In Australia. Answer: Introduction The debate on whether refugees with infectious diseases should be allowed into the country has been going on for a long time. Currently, the government policies do not admit refugees who are found to have infectious diseases. The Australian Government defines asylum seekers as the people who apply for recognition while reserving the term refugee for the people who have been granted protection visas. The debate on whether refugees with infectious diseases should be admitted into the country has been ranging for a long time. Australian humanitarian program reserves a maximum of 12,000 slots for refugees each year. Approximately 12% of the people who apply to be admitted to Australia are found to have infectious diseases (Raphael, 2016). More than 43% of people who apply to be refugees in Australia have health problem and sicknesses that are not infectious but they endanger the lives of the refugees. The current framework for refugees entering into Australia does not provide a clear med ical care structure to help refugees with infectious diseases. Refugees with a bridging Visa are not allowed to work nor are they allowed access to medical benefits. A refugee must have protection visa in order to enjoy the full medical benefits like Australian citizens. The government has been very keen on health issues when admitting new refugees into the country. Australia has some of the most strict regulations and health screening procedures in the world. The results of this screening play a very huge role in determining whether or not a refugee will be admitted into the country. All refugees seeking to enter Australia are checked for Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, Yellow Fever, Polio, and Ebola virus. Refugees with infectious diseases should not be allowed into Australia. I support the motion since there are many negative consequences of allowing refugees with infectious diseases to Australia. One of the reasons why refugees with infectious diseases should not be allowed is that the diseases may spread uncontrollably and hence leading to health epidemic in the country (Barraclough Gardner, 2008).A refugee with a disease like Ebola or Yellow fever may spread the diseases involuntarily to other people. The spread of this disease may result to a major health crisis and loss of life of the affected patients. Refugees with infectious diseases should not be allowed into Australia also due to the burden that they pose to the state presently and in future. The government needs to cover the costs of treatment for these refugees of they are admitted into the country despite them not being Australia citizens. Long term health care burden will be on the government. If refugees with HIV are admitted, they may spread the virus very fast and hence increasing the HIV cases into the country (Gibney Loescher, 2010). The costs of taking care of these patients are very high for the government in the long run. Allowing refugees with infectious diseases into the country will results to spread of the infections which may eventually result to death of the citizens. The death of these citizens leads to loss of important human resource and eventually results to brain drain. The loss of many people due to these diseases also reduces the productivity of the country as a general. This will result into decline in economic performance of a country and hence the GDP may decrease (Renzaho, 2016). Other diseases such as Ebola virus and Yellow fever result to mass deaths and they spread at a very fast rate. It is therefore important that the country does not allow refugees with infectious diseases into Australia. Allowing refugees or other immigrants with infectious diseases into the country may result to introduction of new pathogens and other disease transmitting organisms into the country. The refugees may act as the host of other disease causing pathogens and they may later manifest themselves as other diseases which may be difficult to control (Day, 2016). This will present new challenges to the health sector in Australia. It may result to loss of life and cost millions of dollars to research on the new diseases and infections. Therefore, by not allowing refugees with infectious diseases into the Australia, the country is able to avoid many potential health calamities and disease outbreaks (Australia, 2009).The countries health sector is able to remain calm and efficient. The country is also able to avoid incurring huge amount of money in researching and treating infections which could have been avoided at first. The economic benefit of an healthy population is also so huge to ignore. References Barraclough, S., Gardner, H. (2008). Analysing health policy: A problem-oriented approach. Sydney: Churchill Livingstone/Elsevier. Day, G. (2016). Migrant and Refugee Health: Advance Australia Fair?. Australian Health Review, 40(1), 1. https://dx.doi.org/10.1071/ahv40n1_ed Gibney, M., Loescher, G. (2010). Global refugee crisis: A reference handbook. Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO. Raphael, D. (2016). Immigration, public policy, and health: Newcomer experiences in developed nations. Renzaho, A. M. N. (2016). Globalisation, migration and health: Challenges and opportunities. Screening practices for infectious diseases among Burmese refugees in Australia. (2009).