Former tennis champion and broadcaster Jelena Dokic has urged Australians to look at the arrival of refugees on Australian shores with an “open mind”.
Dokic’s plea follows the arrival of 39 asylum seekers who were discovered near the small Indigenous community of Beagle Bay in Western Australia before being flown to offshore detention this weekend.
The arrival of the men, said to be from Pakistan and Bangladesh, has sparked renewed debate over whether Australia has lost control of its borders.
The former tennis star, herself a refugee who escaped war-torn Yugoslavia as a child in the 1990s, said she might not be alive if Australia had not given her the chance to settle with her family.
Former tennis champion and refugee Jelena Dokic (pictured) has called on Australians to keep an ‘open mind’ following the arrival of 39 asylum seekers on Australian shores on Friday
‘For me, I am a refugee. I have been a refugee twice. I came to this country when I was 11 years old and this country gave me and my family a chance,” Dokic explained on ABC’s Q+A on Monday night.
“A chance that I wouldn’t be here today and could achieve anything in life and who knows, maybe I wouldn’t be alive if I didn’t get that chance.”
Dokic said conversations about asylum seekers arriving on Australian shores should focus on finding a solution rather than adopting negative rhetoric.
“It’s about protecting the borders, but it’s about not making it negative and immediately having a negative conversation about people who are actually trying to come in and looking for a better life,” she said.
‘How do we solve this problem and give people the opportunity to come to Australia?
“We need an open mind because I would like to see more people get the opportunity I got.”
The former tennis star said Australia can maintain a human perspective while finding a solution.
‘I also come from a perhaps more human perspective. I think we can have both. I don’t think it has to be one or the other.’
She appeared on ABC’s Q&A saying conversations about the arrival of asylum seekers should focus on finding a solution rather than adopting negative rhetoric
Journalist and author Geraldine Brooks, who sat on the panel with Dokic, welcomed the broadcast of the images of the latest asylum seekers.
“At least this time we were able to see them instead of having them removed from public view so we can dehumanize and demonize them,” Ms. Brooks said.
‘We saw who they were, just people looking for a better life. They are exploited by both human traffickers and smugglers.
‘Where is humanity?’
The comments follow a question from the audience on the show, asking why the media has not corrected Peter Dutton’s ‘dog whistle rule’ that Anthony Albanese is weak on boundaries.
Jelena Dokic (pictured with her parents) arrived in Australia as a child after escaping from war-torn Yugoslavia