Paul Maley & Stephen Fitzpatrick; 10/11/09; (3 Items)
The 78 asylum-seekers aboard the Oceanic Viking have been promised rapid resettlement in Australia, Canada or New Zealand but have refused to leave the Customs vessel if it means going back into immigration detention. As Foreign Minister Stephen Smith held talks in Colombo yesterday with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, sources told The Australian the Tamils, who had spent the past three weeks off Indonesia’s Bintan Island wanted to live in the community until their claims were processed.Any such proposal will meet stiff opposition from Jakarta, as senior Indonesian officials yesterday ruled out allowing the 78 into the community.
See: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/rapid-settlement-for-oceanic-viking-refugees/story-e6frg6nf-1225795930168; Jakarta losing patience over asylum seekers;Tom Allard & Michelle Grattan; 10/11/09; http://www.theage.com.au/national/jakarta-losing-patience-over-asylum-seekers-20091109-i5d3.html;
The debate over refugees
10/11/09
Nationals Senate leader Barnaby Joyce seems to confuse toughness with rashness, cruelty and illegality (”Rudd ‘too soft’ on boats”, 9/11). Demanding Kevin Rudd to send the 78 Sri Lankan asylum-seekers on board the Australian Customs ship Oceanic Viking back to Sri Lanka is rash since it will only exacerbate the situation. Sri Lanka is perhaps the one place these people would be more unwilling to disembark at than Indonesia. It’s cruel because if they are genuine refugees, their lives would be even more endangered back in Sri Lanka. And it is illegal since Article 51 of the UN Refugee Convention prohibits the refoulement of asylum-seekers. The current stand-off is not so much a failure of border-protection policy as a failure of commonsense and human compassion. Anshu De Silva Wijeyeratne, Wahroonga, NSW
See: http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/letters/index.php/theaustralian/ comments/the_debate_over_refugees/; Howard’s way still figures large in asylum-seeker policy; Don Rothwell; 10/11/09; http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/howards-way-still-figures-large-in-asylum-seeker-policy/story-e6frg6zo-1225795886606; Storm erupts over detention cells at Christmas Island; Paige Taylor; 10/11/09; http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/storm-erupts-over-detention-cells-at-christmas-island/story-e6frg6nf-1225795930113;
Sri Lankan deal to stop asylum boats
Amanda Hodge & Paul Maley; 10/11/09; The Australian; No Internet Text
Australia last night struck a bargain with Sri Lanka to help track down Tamil Tiger people smugglers in return for greater co-operation in reducing asylum- seeker numbers. Australia will also contribute an extra $11 million, on top of $38m already given, to help the process of resettling about 250,000 mostly Tamil civilians still being held in detention camps in the former northern conflict zone.
In a joint press conference last night with Sri Lankan foreign minister Rohitha Bogollagama, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith emphasised the importance of apprehending and prosecuting criminal and terror syndicates behind the people smuggling trade.
The focus seemed designed to appease the Sri Lankan government, which insists the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam is behind the vast majority of boats ferrying asylum seekers from its shores, and from neighbouring countries, to Australia.
“Australia and Sri Lanka have in the past cooperated very well over people smuggling matters, including cooperation at the police, customs and naval level but I believe we can do even more together,” Mr Smith said .
Mr Bogollagama said the banning of LTTE activities on Australian soil was a focus of discussions between Mr Smith, himself and President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday.
While the Sri Lankan government crushed the LTTE in May, ending a 26-year-long civil war, the rebels continued to fund and conduct clandestine activities offshore with a mind to reviving theseparatist struggle in Sri Lanka, he said, adding that the joint agreement signed yesterday committed Australia to remain “vigilant and mindful of this”.
The deal came after the 78 Tamil asylum-seekers aboard the Oceanic Viking were promised rapid resettlement in Australia, Canada or New Zealand, but refused to leave the Customs vessel if it means going back into immigration detention.
Sources told The Australian the Tamils, who had spent the past three weeks off Indonesia’s Bintan Island, wanted to live in the community until their claims were processed.
Any such proposal will meet stiff opposition from Jakarta, as senior Indonesian officials yesterday ruled out allowing the 78 into the community.
As 10 Sri Lankans among 255 aboard a second asylum-seeker boat at the Indonesian port of Merak begun a hunger strike in protest at their situation, Kevin Rudd warned he would not be diverted from pursuing his border protection policies by threats of self-harm and protests.
“Let me be absolutely clear that that policy of ours, in the Australian national interest, will not be changed in response to any protests, any threats, any threats of harm, any threats of self-harm,” the Prime Minister said.
In Canberra officials are understood to be increasingly optimistic a deal will be brokered this week, ending the Oceanic Viking stand-off, which has become an irritant in relations between Canberra and Jakarta.
Tags: Australia, Indonesia, Migrants & Refugees, Pacific