A graphic novel is showing would-be asylum seekers not to come here by boat

THEY are the Government’s new secret weapon to stop the boats: comic books.

News.com.au has learned this picture-based novel, written in the dominant Afghan languages Dari and Pashto, has been distributed overseas as part of an effort to discourage asylum seekers from coming to Australia by boat.

A spokesman for Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said the book was distributed under the Abbott and Rudd governments.

He said the book was originally developed and distributed under the Rudd administration.

It has an emotional plotline.

Meet our protagonist. He’s an asylum seeker. He lives in squalor and works as a mechanic.

He dreams of new beginnings. Perth, in particular.

The lead character pays to flee his country.

He flies to another nation.

And he meets up with a stranger. That person, who we assume is a people smuggler, shows him a photograph of a boat.

With a worried look in his eyes, he boards a crowded vessel headed for Australia.

It all goes wrong.

The asylum seekers are picked up by the Navy ...

And are taken to a detention facility.

He longs to go home and imagines dancing at a party.

The final page contains a stark warning.

“If you go to Australia without a visa on a boat, you won’t be settled in Australia”.

The Government has launched similar advertising campaigns in Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Vietnam and Indonesia “using a range of channels and languages”, including TV, radio and press advertising.

Diaspora communities here in Australia have also been targeted by a campaign.

Many refugee advocates are unimpressed:

Tony Abbott's propaganda shames us and makes a mockery of our signature on human rights and refugee treaties.http://t.co/bu1ot99bNr — Christine Milne (@senatormilne) February 11, 2014

But cartoonist Jon Kudelka took a different issue with it:

Honestly whoever drew that customs comic needs to take a good long look at him or herself. They cannot be in my gang. — Jon Kudelka (@jonkudelka) February 11, 2014

As they say, pictures speak a thousand words.