Government Facebook ads tell migrant Australians to deter family members from arriving illegally.

By Avani Dias

Second and third-generation Australians say they are shocked to have been targeted by Federal Government Facebook advertisements encouraging them to tell their relatives not to come to Australia illegally.

“Obviously they’re targeting me for some particular reason even though I live in Australia, I’ve been born in Australia, I don’t know anyone who’s looking to arrive in Australia by boat,” said Johnny Lieu, whose parents migrated from Vietnam decades ago.

“So I’m not really sure what the point is of these advertisements except to make me feel uneasy.”

Mr Lieu said he was surprised when he saw the taxpayer-funded, Australian Border Force advertisement in Vietnamese which translates to ‘Never, no way — Australia will not loosen its tough border rules’.

He said he had listed Vietnamese as a language he speaks on Facebook.

“It was definitely a bit shocking and surprising to say the least, I guess I know who those advertisements are targeted to and to see them targeted at me, I was a little taken aback,” he said.

“I’m surprised that the Australian Government would see me in their sights.”

Ads appear in multiple languages

Aitak Salempour and her family arrived from Iran when she was one-year-old, and she is an Australian citizen.

She was targeted by the advertisements in Farsi.

“Maybe because I’ve put [on Facebook] my place of birth which is in Iran … I have no idea why they would have chosen me who is already an Australian citizen living here,” she said.

“I was confused and it was confronting, they’ve missed their target completely.

“I would not send that message on, I’m not the right kind of person.”

Facebook allows users to target advertisements based on a number of factors including interests, behaviours, connections, and languages.

The Government advertisements are a part of an Operation Sovereign Borders campaign that appears in a number of languages including Bengali, Burmese, Hindi, and Tamil.

“The campaign is targeted at source and transit countries for people smuggling activity, as well as diaspora communities in Australia,” an Immigration and Border Protection Department spokesman said.

The department said the ads were designed to ensure different ethnic communities were informed about Australia’s border protection policies which aim to stop illegal maritime arrivals, and to encourage them to share the information with people offshore.

“Evaluation research consistently shows that family and friends are the primary information source for people in Australia and overseas,”the spokesman said.

But Ms Salempour said she was the wrong audience.

“If my relatives were to come here they wouldn’t be applying as a refugee, they’d be applying as a skilled migrant or something,” Ms Salempour said.

The Federal Government is due to introduce legislation this week that bans refugeese and asylum seekers who have tried to reach Australia by boat from mid-July 2013 from ever coming here.

This post originally appeared on ABC News. 

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