Introduction
The events in recent months involving the submerged nation of Atlantis and the Commonwealth of Australia have gathered much media coverage in recent months. There has been much bickering from both sides regarding the events, jurisdiction and who was responsible and for what.

This is a collection of first hand reports from a few of the many people involved as well as an interview with a random citizen on the street. Obviously for space reasons the full interviews could not be published, nor could the testimony of all involved be taken.

These have been transcribed from interviews done by various sources, most conducted by professional media outlets. Monetary amounts have been adjusted into US dollars based on the exchange rate of the time. All interviews have been independently translated into English for ease of reading and all views expressed within belong to those interviewed and not this publisher.

They are organised in no particular order.

Wasim Khanzada
I’m not a bad man. I have never hurt anyone. I have done no crime.
All I want is a safe home.

My name is Wasim Khanzada and I am an Afhgan expatriate. I am a refugee, but not legally. I have two daughters and a son. I love them very much. My wife died while fleeing from our homes. I miss her very much.

I am poor. My family is poor. My father and my children are poor. I have been a farmer all my life working on a small patch of land my family has lived on for three generations. For a while we grew corn and oats, enough to feed my family with enough left to sell at the market. It was a tough life, we were in much stress over the rains or the wind, but it was a good life.

Then the Americans came. They removed our government. They bombed our cities. They killed our people. They sent troops across our fields looking for criminals. I do not blame them for that. When my sister was raped ten or twelve years ago my brothers and I chased the man who did it across three villages to make him answer for his crimes against my blood and against Allah.

But with the Taliban gone the warlords took over, the clan leaders who are easily bribed and easily bought. They Americans bought them to get their support for the leader they wished to appoint. And the druglords bought them to force us to grow crops they wanted.

I started to grow poppies. Fields of them. There was less four or five years ago, the Taliban was trying to stop poppies from being grown. It was a prohibition.They were hoping to use their strict laws to win support and friendship from the Americans. But that did not happen, the Americans did not care that we were no longer growing poppies. It did cause a shortage of heroin in some parts of Europe I have been told.

So I grew the flowers. I could not eat them. My family could not eat them. I sold them for far less than I could sell my food. But the people I sold them too turned them into heroin and sold that for many times what they paid me for them. They got rich while my family starved. Since Afghanistan was invaded I have been told that the Golden Crescent opium trade has boomed. It makes billions every year.

I did not want to be apart of this trade. I packed up my family and I left. We fled across the border. That was where I lost my wife. I do not wish to discuss that. We fled to Pakistan and stayed there for some number of weeks. Many of my countrymen do the same. They all go to Pakistan of Iran. Those with money stay. Those who do not continue moving. Malaysia is a good destination, they accept other Islams.

Those with money fly other places. Sydney is a popular choice. People like me have little choice. We can stay in the crowded cities or take boats to Indonesia. It has borders that are easily slipped past. From there we can get to Australia.

It is hard. We give what little money we have left to smugglers who stick us on leaky boats and send us adrift. Dozens of us crammed into barges at almost $1,600 a head. We were placed in the hold, cramped in this tight room without windows or ventilation.

Our boat was one of the unlucky ones. It started to sink while we were halfway there. A seam on the bottom broke and water began to pour into boat. We were trapped in the hold as it slowly filled with water. The stronger of us climbed atop other trying to stay afloat. Many drowned like this, pinned underwater. The engines stopped their hum as water flooded that compartment.

I panicked myself and climbed up a wall. I did not think of my children. I did not think of my brother. This shames me deeply. I just did not want to die. Not like that.

Then the boat shuddered and shook. It tipped over at a sharp angle and then righted itself. We felt fast movement, like our barge was being swiftly dragged. But I cannot imagine by what, I do not know what happened.

People fell to their knees in prayer. I knelt and said my words to God.

Daniel Whitestone
Hello, I’m Daniel Whitestone and I am the director one of the overflow camps for the boat people. It is one of six detention centres built to handle the intake of people. Almost four million come every year trying to make it to Australia. And many are given refugee status.

We do what we can to prevent them from reaching land. When they reach the soil they can ask for asylum, but they can’t if we don’t let them dock. It’s a tough love policy. Look, there are only nineteen million people in Australia. We simply can’t let everyone in. We’d be overrun. That’s why we have such a hard-line immigration policy. And according to government statistics Australia is second only to Canada in the number of refugees it takes in!

Four million sounds like a lot of refugees, but it really isn’t. Far more than that flee to Europe every year. There are almost twelve million people considered to be refugees every year! There is simply no country that can take them all. There’s simply not enough jobs, most would end up on welfare sucking up public funds and crippling social programs. Just not enough hard yakka to go around. I’m not fond of my job, but I do the best I can at it but it certainly wasn’t my choice of career. I have a Masters degree in Classics and Philosophy but things are tight now. I only got this job because I know someone in the Ministry.

And it is a dangerous world we live in. Any one of these refugees could be a terrorist, or be willing to aid and abet terrorist organisations. We simply can’t take the risk Almost none of these boat people have passports of real proof of identification, we have no way of knowing if they are who they say they are. Who the claim to be. Them terrorists took out a lot of people in Bali, that’s a little close to here for comfort. Bali is to us Aussies what Mexico is to you Yanks. Almost half the people killed were Australians. And all kids too, 20s and such. Tragedy that.

Look, Australia accepts thousands of refugees from camps around the world every year. These people are queue jumpers, they’re trying to get past the lines and over the people who have been waiting patiently and obeying the laws.

We can’t send them home. We don’t have diplomatic ties with Afghanistan or Iraq so we simply can’t deport them all. So sad as it may be we have to put them in camps. Now these aren’t bad camps. Put that thought from your mind right away. They’re all free to leave whenever they want. Just as long as they leave the country as well. And if they go through the proper channels they may even be able to get temporary residence someday. No torture, no abuse, I’d personally sack anyone who tried that crap. Everyone gets food and a place to sleep, we make sure of it.

As for recent events I haven’t heard much. I don’t even own a telly. But the gossip rags the missus is always reading is going on about Aquaman bursting into parliament riding a pack or orcas and tossing his trident around. They’re all a blither about him beating up the PM and such. Sounds like a right load of codswallop to me, pure waffle.

Sarfraz A. Malik
Greetings. I am Makik, and I am a resident of a processing camp in Nauru, east of New Guinea. The boat that 200 other refugees and I were intercepted by the Australian navy. Instead of taking us home or to Australia they placed us here. They said it was so they could process our claims and determine our status. We are poor and hungry and have no where else to go, that is our status.

When I arrived here I learned that the Australian government paid over $20 million to Papua New Guinea and Nauru to set up these camps. Really, these camps do not feel like anyone put $20 million into them. The conditions are as bad as they were back home.

So I await processing and hope that I can receive asylum. Some here have been waiting for years to receive it. I know some who have turned to suicide after feeling so helpless and abandoned.

I am told I can return home at anytime. But I do not wish to. I fled my country with almost nothing, it is not a place I wish to return to. Plus I fear they will find out I left and grow angry with me. The chiefs do not officially rule my country, but they hold great power over the peoples. They will think I betrayed them, that perhaps I sold information about them to foreigners or that I have been sent back as a spy. I was not a well-liked person to begin with. If I were liked I would not have needed to flee. Returning and I would be a pariah.

It is even worse for the Iraqis here. They no longer have a country to return to. What is there is filled with terrorists and rebels and soldiers on either side that shoot wildly. Some fear that the Baath Party still holds power in some cities, or that they will be seen as American collaborators or Western sympathisers.

Yet there are new whispers through the camp. Of someplace new on Western Australia in the deserted regions. That refugees are being moved there in great numbers. Some fear it is a trick. That they lead us there so we can die in the desert. Others say it is our new chance at a home. I am not sure if I believe either, it is just some legend circulating around the camp. I do not wish to go. I wait my processing and hope I can go to Sydney or another city where I can find work.

Ambassador Haider
As the ambassador for Australia to United Nations I have not official comment on the recent actions of the nation of Atlantis. Atlantis is only barely recognised by the United Nations and does not currently have a formal ambassador. Likewise Australia has few formal dealings with this rogue nation and no treaties.

My use of the term “rogue nation”? What else would you call a nation that has not ratified the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights and has not signed the Geneva Convention? This country, if it even qualifies as a country, has not signed any major arms agreements or ratified any of the major treaties of the twentieth century!

All this paints a shocking picture of a nation before we get to other recent political events. The constant posturing with the United States for starters, both nations have been butting heads for months and it is shaping up to be a very ugly situation. I’m surprised President Luthor hasn’t declared war or an embargo on them already, he would have enough support for it and the public would love it. And it is an election year after all. And lets not forget the continued situation in Santa Prisca. Atlantis has essentially cut off the entire island.

Now this rogue nation comes along and criticises Australian foreign policy and our treatment of refugees. How many refugees do they take in on an annual basis? None! How many foreign nations do they offer aid to? None! In fact they are currently in occupation of an island nation, which they illegally seized during a war. Once they abide by international law regarding Cerdia then they can maybe criticise our actions.

And how did this king become involved I ask you. While swimming about through non-international waters, that is he was clearly within the borders of Australia without and subject to our laws he interfered with a vessel and risked the lives of endangered animals clearly protected by Australian law. What if the boat had been leaking fuel and exploded? Or if it had been carrying noxious chemicals instead of people? The lives of the whales he used to move the ship would have been thrown away. But of course he hides behind diplomatic immunity so we cannot prosecute.

I have heard nothing about any deal between the governments and have no further comment on any such speculation. Nor do I have any comment over any alleged meetings between the “King” of this rogue nation and the president of Australia. That is, if an obvious metahuman dictator can be referred to as a king without disgracing the entire idea of monarchies. As a proud member of the British Commonwealth I can honestly say I have met a true monarch and this Aquaman with his green tights and hook for a hand is not one. He should lose the beard and just grow a bushy moustache and start wearing a beret like most other dictators.

No I am not denying any meeting took place, I simply decline to comment. If such a meeting took place it would be announced by the Prime Minster at a time of his choosing and after things had been decided one way or another. This is simply how it is done. But I am sure if this piker the fish-people call king did meet with the PM that Winston would tell him how it is and set him straight. Unless there was mind control.

That is all.

High King Orin of Atlantis
You want to know my role in this matter? Fine. I was establishing diplomatic relations at the time. No, not with Australia, I was meeting with an envoy from a nation you would never have heard of. The Sher'Hedeen. The shark-people of the Indian Ocean. Yes, I knew you would not have heard of them.

Along the way I encountered a sinking ship and asked a nearby small voyager of whales to help. What? A pod of whale, yes that is what you call them, but they refer to themselves differently. These were a voyager. They lifted up the boat and boar it to the nearest shore.

Inside I could sense many people tightly packed and fearful of death. I was curious why so many people would have been crushed into such a small vessel that I began to ask around. I discovered from an extended family of clown fish that many groups of rickety boats have been seen floating across that expanse of water, many have sunk along the way. Most often they travel between Indonesia and Australia, a stretch of water almost five hundred kilometres in distance.

It did not take me long to discover why these people were fleeing. The surface world seems quite full of such war-torn and corrupt nations-states. I’ve known about such matters for some time, as a founding member of the Justice League I have helped bring aid to many refugee camps and aided in many evacuations.

I know something of what it is like to be a refugee, my people have had to flee themselves. Once, in the not so distant past the entire population of my city-state of Poseidonis was forced to evacuate. The entire city was emptied and all the millions of people were homeless with nowhere to go and few possessions. While my people were forced to go to other undersea cities the refugees here have fewer options.

I felt I had to get involved and damn the consequences. In the past I have often restrained myself from action for fear of international incidents and other reprisals. I was… hesitant to drag other innocent people into problems that were the result of my actions. To use a surfacer phrase I was afraid to rock the boat.

This was always the problem with being a king and a so-called super-hero. Villains and psychopaths would attack Atlantis just to attract my attention, as they do in Metropolis. Only it was my duty to protect my subjects from harm, something that was difficult if they were under constant attack. So at times I would sit back and let things I knew to be wrong occur, afraid to burden my people with increased danger. There was this one time near Cuba… nevermind. Unimportant. I know I can no longer do this, I can no longer sit idly by and watch injustice, not if there is something I can do.

This prompted the recent bargain I struck with the government of Australia. Because I knew I had the power to change how things were done. It is not much, but it is a start.

Immigration Minister Patrick Moore
As the Minster in charge of Immigration I can clearly and equivocally state I am against the recent change in policy. There have been clear and workable channels to gain citizenship and access to visas in the Commonwealth of Australia. There is procedure that must be followed and this sudden reversal is an astonishing and abrupt change that I fear is for the worst.

Obviously this Aquaman, king of the city of Atlantis or wherever, is exercising some illicit influence over the Prime Minster. He has either threatened or blackmailed until he has received his way. Now that I think of it, I once heard that Aquaman uses his mind to talk with fish. It is possible he is using mind control on the PM. This will not stand.

This cape is nothing more than a costumed thug as most of the American ‘super-heroes’ are. They resolve all their problems with violence and it is all they know. Did you hear how he gained access to the Prime Minister? Simply disgraceful! There are diplomatic channels for a reason.

I’ve heard the deal made. Sounds useless to me, almost as if we’re surrendering the land to these Arabs. Will they pay taxes or just drain money from the nation’s coffers? How will we keep track of their comings and goings and prevent any hostile individuals from sneaking across this new porous border? This is why we have immigration laws and border controls. This sort of action is ignoring centuries of law and policy.

This is not to say that Australia has a strict border and anyone is incapable of immigration. Because of the ageing population we maintains one of the most active immigration programs in the world! In fact we absorb tens of thousands of immigrants from all over the world each and every year. However, most permanent resident visas are granted on the basis of professional skills or family associations. These refugees have neither.

This King Orin, Aquaman, is simply not qualified to make decisions of this magnitude. He may be a king but has spent the majority of his time battling lunatics in gaudy costumes. What does he know about economics or administrative policy? What sort of education has he received? To my knowledge he has either been raised by some sort of lighthouse keeper or a school of fish, neither offer, to my knowledge, any form of advanced degree.

Quite frankly I see nothing in this that benefits the Commonwealth of Australia. This may sound selfish but unless we expect something in return I see no motive for us to go along with this scheme. If the refugees want to become Sandgropers they should go through the proper channels like the rest of us.

Prime Minister Howard J. Winston
I am the honourable Howard Winston the duly elected Prime Minster of the Commonwealth of Australia. My hard-line policy on these Boat People has been embraced by the general populace and allowed my recent re-election. They approve of treatment of the current crisis, or rather approved of my previous policy. There has recently been a shift in governmental plans.

Last month the king of Atlantis, one Orin, burst into one of my cabinet meetings demanding to speak with me. It turns out he had walked right past several of my security guards and stared them down when they confronted him. Just glowered until they backed away.

Here’s the funny thing, he didn’t just barge in with a giant harpoon wet and reeking of brine and dressed in tights of that scale armour top. He entered wearing ceremonial dress, very elaborate and escorted by a small entourage. He demanded to speak with me then he sat down at the table and passed around several folders.

In the folders were detailed maps of the uninhabited sections of Western Australia, especially areas in the Great Sandy Desert, and lists of numerous small islands of the Coral Sea Island territories. He proposed that we allow the refugees to set up camp in the desert areas and the uninhabited islands.

Of course we refused. Firstly, we are not in the habit of giving away land and secondly placing people in such inhospitable conditions would simply kill the majority. At this point I expected King Orin to simply demand we allow his plan to go ahead, of ban Australia from the sea as he has done with Japan and Santa Prisca.

Instead he offered me a deal. Firstly he gave an assurance that they would not starve. ‘The water will provide for them.’ He said as if that meant something. But he also offered Atlantis’ resources to aid them lightening the burden on Australia. Then he asked about tourism, how much money was placed into our economy from people coming to see the sights, surf and things such as the Great Barrier Reef.

We already owe our thanks to the Atlanteans over the Barrier Reef; it has been greatly suffering over environmental issues such as Global Warming. He personally convinced the Crown-of-thorn starfish to keep their numbers down, they prey on coral and have been destroyed large sections. And Atlantis also helped cool the water by somehow redirecting cool streams from the south. Although, I believe they did this mainly to help the Reef and not Australia.

I assumed this was the lead-in to talk of banning us from the Reef. Of course Australia would have fought that decision and appealed to the United Nations. That wouldn’t have been a ban on drug running ships but civilians and fishermen.

Instead he offered to help tourism! He said he would personally ask whales and dolphins to frequent certain areas. He would ask jellyfish to stay away from popular beaches so the waters would be safe. Likewise, other dangerous sea creatures would be told to give humans a wide berth. He even mentioned something about manipulating water currently to improve surfing conditions. He also offered to initiate trade between our nations, both scientific and for resources.

Given the possible benefits the cabinet and I elected to accept the proposed policy for a test period. If it does not work we will simply cancel the project.

Nicola Blunkett
I’m Mz. Blunkett and I’m a systems analyst for Interbaun Communications, an ISP. I’m not involved with the government but I pay attention to the news.

I don’t have much to say about refugees, I’ve never much thought about them. They’re something that mostly happens overseas and doesn’t really impact my day-to-day life. It’s sad that they’re living in such horrible conditions but there’s nothing much I can do. I’m in debt up to my neck paying off my house and car. My son just got braces and that’s costing me a fair bit of brass. I give to charity through my work, I suppose I could give a bit more but not a lot. And I always drop a few to the Salvos when they collect.

I mean, the government pays for a lot. Roads are in bad shape in some places and taxes are high enough already, we don’t need to be saving the whole world. You can’t get blood from a stone. Plus there are plenty of homeless on the street already, if we haven’t saved all of them what chance do the blokes in other countries got. Although most of them bums have a few Kangaroos loose in the top paddock, if you know what I mean.

As for Atlantis I haven’t heard much about that. I’ve heard all about Aquaman and the Justice League but up until ten years or so ago I always heard Atlantis was a myth. And now they’re working with the government. That sounds just a bit daft to me. And all this talk of them trading with is, sounds a bit shonky to me. Like they know something we don’t.

I’ve seen some pictures of that Aquaman that’s king there, he’s a savage bloke. All that wild hair and tights like some sort of Surfie. Only without the tan. He’s a pale one, he is. Goatee doesn’t suit him though, makes him look all types of old.

I’m getting all of a muddle now. It sounds good, if we can help I suppose we should. Just as long as it doesn’t hurt the rest of us that is. Everyone wants to help, no one wants these poor sods to suffer, but no one wants to inconvenience themselves while helping. That’s just life.

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The End...

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