2010-11 itinerary – Sri Lanka in Australia
Tour match v Queensland, 22 October, Brisbane
Tour match v New South Wales, 24 October, Sydney
T20 tour match v New South Wales, 27 October, Sydney
Twenty20 international, 31 October, Perth
1st ODI, 3 November, Melbourne
2nd ODI, 5 November, Sydney
3rd ODI, 7 November, Brisbane
BBC (22/01) – Sri Lankan refugees to be resettled while more wait
Watch news report here
Antara News (22/01) - Sri Lankan Immigrants Finally off to Third Countries
Excerpt: ”But this will be the last time we are helping Australia deal with its foreign refugee influx problem,” Sujatmiko said adding that Indonesia did not incur any expenditures for the deportation since all the related costs were borne by the United Nations.
“Indonesia is also not receiving any material profit from this case,” he said. Read full article here
Antara News (19/01) - Indonesia foils 92 human smuggling attempts
The Australian government said the Indonesian authorities had successfully foiled 92 attempts of foreigners seeking asylum in Australia through the waters of that country since September 2008.
At least 40 people suspected of involvement in organizing human smuggling had been arrested, the Australian Immigration and Citizenship Ministry said Monday.
Australian Immigration and Citizenship Minister, Senator Chris Evans said his administration is coordinating with several neighboring countries under bilateral cooperation and the Bali Process forum on human smuggling, human trade and other relevant transnational crimes.
In supporting the eradication of human smuggling, Australia has also provided more than 654 million Australian dollars and raised the number of its federal police personnel, the foreign and trade ministry, DIAC, and the customs and border protection agency, he said. More
Cooperation among socialists & allies on the refugee issue
by GRANT MORGAN
Socialist Worker-New Zealand
The refugee issue is almost certain to rise from near invisibility in New Zealand politics to become a strategic battleground.
Waves of refugees will be thrown up by the poverty, strife and ecotastrophes of global capitalism’s end times.
The Right & Centre & much of the Left in New Zealand politics will seek to portray these waves of refugees as threats to “our way of life”. This could open the way towards authoritarian nationalism which jackboots the NZ working class as well as offshore refugees.
NZ socialists and our allies must show that offshore refugees are a resource, not a threat, to the majority of Kiwis under the thumb of corporate bosses and politicians.
Refugees are a resource for our side because they are fleeing the poverty, wars and other calamities caused by the same world system which kicks most Kiwis around. They are our natural allies against the unnatural forces of global capitalism.
In addition to our duty of solidarity with victims of a hateful system, socialists have a duty of foresight to see the near inevitability of the refugee issue becoming a strategic battleground in Aotearoa.
So it was very good to see different socialist groups (Socialist Worker, Workers Party, Communist League) represented at the Auckland protest on 18 January in solidarity with Tamil refugees. These refugees are being held hostage by Indonesian state forces in collaboration with the Australian and New Zealand governments. (See media release by protest organiser Priyaksha Pathmanathan below.)
Cooperation among NZ socialist groups on the refugee issue is a positive sign for the future.
And so too is the international cooperation among socialists and other activists around the Tamil refugee issue. The Auckland protest was just one small event in a seven-country campaign which embraces Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, Canada, United States and England as well as New Zealand.
This is a real step forward for practical solidarity among various socialist groups in both the global South and the global North.
Monday 18th January 2010 – Auckland, New Zealand
For more information, contact Auckland protest organizer Priyaksha Pathmanathan:
021 228 6538
priyaksha@hotmail.com
On Monday 18th January, 30 Aucklanders representing half-a-dozen organisations protested outside the Australian consulate as part of a seven-country international campaign.
They were demanding that the Australian Government take responsibility for 254 Tamil asylum seekers sailing for Australia who were turned back to Indonesia after the Australian prime minister asked the Indonesian Navy to intercept their boat.
Similar protests took place in Indonesia, Australia, Canada, United States, England and Malaysia on the same day.
Organisations supporting the Auckland protest included the Indonesian Human Rights Committee, Socialist Worker-New Zealand, Human Rights Network and the Workers Party.
Local protest organizer Priyaksha Pathmanathan said “This was an important first step in making this issue visible in New Zealand and I hope that more could be done by countries to address the root causes of the many conflicts that are causing people to get into dangerous situations in their desperate need to seek freedom”
As part of the Australian Government’s ‘Indonesian Solution’, Kevin Rudd personally requested that the Indonesian Navy intercept and stop a boat carrying 254 Tamil asylum seekers from entering Australian waters.
Monday marked 100 days since the Tamil asylum seekers refused to leave the boat for fear of being locked up in an Indonesian detention centre or being deported back to Sri Lanka. This fear was confirmed when Gunasekaram Sujendran voluntarily stepped off the boat to visit his sick mother in Sri Lanka and was imprisoned without charge upon arrival in Colombo Airport. A repeat of the event occurred when eight asylum seekers left the boat on a promise by Indonesian officials to have UNHCR access; However these eight men were thrown in Indonesian detention cells where they were interrogated by the Sri Lankan Navy and officials.
Health and Hygiene on this boat is poor, with more than 200 people sharing one toilet. Many on this boat are sick from diarrehea and other preventable diseases. There are 31 Children on board, including a little baby who was born in the bunker in the last stages of the war in Sri Lanka in 2009 and who has just turned 1 on the boat. There are 27 Women without basic needs, one of which a woman who is 7 months pregnant on this boat.
Without access given to UNHCR to process applications, media or family members, the protest comes amid the escalating human rights abuses that are occurring on the boat. One which caused uproar was the preventable death of George Jacob Samuel Christin who died due medical negligence by the International Organisation of Migration (IOM) and the Indonesian Navy.
The Auckland protesters stood outside the Australian Consulate at Viaduct Harbour Basin with placards, urging the Australian Government to respect the rights of refugees as a signatory to the UN Refugee Convention. They also requested the New Zealand Government to uphold its duty as a signatory to the Refugee Convention. Protesters chanted “In the jail or on the sea – Respect the rights of the refugee”
Addressing the crowd, Maire Leadbeater from Indonesian Human Rights Committee “There can be no doubt that Tamil citizens of Sri Lanka have reason to fear persecution as most have had their lives disrupted by extreme violence and internal displacement. International law enshrines the principle of ‘non-refoulement’, explicitly prohibiting the forced return of refugees to areas where their lives are potentially in danger” she concluded by saying “I am happy to be part of this important contribution to what’s being an international human rights issue to what’s becoming one of a desperate humanitarian crisis. New Zealand should also be aware that it has a region responsibility to assist with the plight of genuine asylum seekers”
“We are public witnesses for Tamil asylum seekers fleeing civil strife who are trapped on a boat in Indonesia and cannot speak for themselves,” said Grant Morgan from Socialist Worker. “It is legal to seek asylum in any country, but this international law is being violated by the governments of Australia and Indonesia, with covert backing from the New Zealand government. The actions of these governments is not only immoral but also illegal.”"
Green MP Keith Locke, who was out of the Auckland and could not make it to the protest, sent this message: “I congratulate those present on this vigil today for highlighting the tragic plight of the Tamil asylum seekers on the boat off Merak. They are suffering terribly. On behalf of the Green Party I have been pushing for New Zealand to take some of these asylum seekers, along with Australia. This is the only just response New Zealand can make to the crisis caused by the persecution of Tamil people in Sri Lanka, which has led to so many people fleeing on boats. I will continue to push our government on this matter.”
Newstalk ZB – Greens want more refugees accepted
The Green Party says the Government’s decision to accept 13 Sri Lankan Tamil refugees is a start but it wants the country to take in more displaced people.
The 13 are among 78 Sri Lankan Tamils rescued on the high seas by the Australian Customs ship, Oceanic Viking.
Greens spokesman Keith Locke says New Zealand should have accepted more people from the ship.
“The biggest refugee crisis in our region is the people coming out of Sri Lanka. We can take quite a number of them and I’m sure the local Tamil community would welcome that. Many of them are refugees themselves.”
Mr Locke says hundreds of Tamils fleeing repression in the aftermath of a civil war are desperate to find refuge in this part of the world and New Zealand has plenty of capacity to accept more people from the Oceanic Viking under its annual refugee quota of 750.
SMH – Kiwis to take 13 Ocean Viking refugees
by Tamara Mclean
New Zealand appears to have done an about face and accepted 13 Tamil Sri Lankan refugees from Australia’s Oceanic Viking in Indonesia.
A spokeswoman for the country’s immigration minister, Jonathan Coleman, has confirmed New Zealand would take some of the 78 refugees from the Australian Customs vessel despite formerly refusing to get involved.
The decision follows discussions between Kevin Rudd and his New Zealand counterpart John Key, with the spokeswoman saying the Kiwis would take 13 because they had been mandated as refugees by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). More
SMH AAP (18/01) – Indonesian standoff must stop: Greens
by Angela Harper
The Greens have renewed calls for the government to process Sri Lankan asylum seekers who have spent 100 days on an unseaworthy vessel docked in Indonesia.
The Indonesian navy intercepted the Tamils at Australia’s request and they were taken to the Javan port of Merak in October.
The Tamils do not want to disembark the rickety cargo boat because they fear they will be forced to wait years for resettlement.
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, who will join a protest vigil for the Sri Lankans in Melbourne on Monday, said Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s treatment of the asylum seekers was inhumane. More
SMH Editorial (18/01) – Marooned by a silent accuser
FIVE adult Tamil refugees and two children are marooned indefinitely on Christmas Island, in a legal limbo. This is embarrassing for the Federal Government and a moral challenge to all Australians. Four of the adults, including a woman and her two children, were among the group of Sri Lankans who arrived in Indonesia after a messy stand-off aboard the Australian Customs ship Oceanic Viking and then, after accelerated processing, were flown to Christmas Island. There, the children – incidental, innocent victims – have joined their father, who was already detained on the island after arriving in Australian waters on another boat.
The dilemma arises because the adult Tamils have been found to be genuine refugees by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, but subsequently deemed security risks, without explanation, by ASIO. This means they can neither be involuntarily repatriated to Sri Lanka nor resettled in Australia. The tidy alternative solution – resettlement in a willing third country – has been made less likely by ASIO’s adverse assessment.
Some points must be made. First, Australia is fully entitled to run security checks on people seeking entry, as refugees, visitors or immigrants. Second, the exodus of Tamils from Sri Lanka is the byproduct of an ugly civil war in which both sides – the armed forces of the Sinhalese-dominated government and the separatist Tamil Tigers – did dreadful things. Tamils living in Tiger territory must have found it difficult, even suicidal, not to be at least passive collaborators. Postwar persecution of suspected sympathisers by the victorious Colombo government was ruthless. Read More (half way down the page)
The Hobary Mercury (18/01) – Refuge from double standards
by Greg Barns
Last week the Right-wing media and their political friends worked themselves up into lather over an assessment by ASIO that a small number of Tamil asylum seekers should not be allowed into this country because they are apparently a security threat.
But when two Israeli political leaders came to Australia shortly before Christmas, those same politicians and media fawned over them, despite the fact they have been identified as possibly having committed crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Right at the outset let’s make it clear that just because ASIO assesses someone as a security threat means nothing. ASIO jumps at shadows and you have no way of knowing if its assessment is correct or not because it is secretive, unaccountable and has a history of getting it horribly wrong in the past. More
The Australian (18/01) - Rudd’s `hypocritical’ boatpeople policy lambasted
by Chip Le Grand
AUSTRALIA’S approach towards boatpeople is “reeking in hypocrisy”, offering some of the world’s most generous settlement terms to asylum-seekers who reach our waters, while spending unprecedented sums to stop their boats.
A study of Labor’s boatpeople policies has found the Rudd government, under its stated aim of pursuing a more “humane” approach towards asylum-seekers, has removed not only the more contentious elements of the Howard government’s Pacific Solution but policies and measures built up over 20 years to discourage boat arrivals. At the same time, the government has allocated $654 million over the next four years to erect regional barriers against boatpeople.
This includes bolstering the Customs and border protection presence in Colombo, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta, providing incentives for regional neighbours to adopt tougher people-smuggling laws and tougher policing of Indonesian ports. More
SMH AAP (17/01) – Fears for missing asylum seekers
A boatload of asylum seekers believed to have set off from Indonesian waters for Australia in October has never arrived, the Afghani refugee community says.
Brisbane-based Hassan Ghulam said worried relatives of 105 ethnic Hazaras believed to have left Indonesia on October 2 had started contacting him weeks ago.
Hazara are a Persian-speaking ethnic group who live mainly in the central region of Afghanistan. More
This story was also covered in the following:
The Age (18/01) – Fears for boatload of Hazara asylum seekers
Reuters (17/01) – Fears for 100 Afghan asylum seekers bound for Australia
Editing by Jeremy Laurence
Green Left (16/01) - Merak eyewitness: Tamil refugees face death, deportation
by Niko Leka
Indonesia plans to force the 240 Tamil refugees, moored on a boat in Merak, into detention at the end of this week, “at gunpoint if necessary”, the January 14 Australian reported.
The refugees have refused to leave the boat, which has been at Merak since October, when Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd called Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to ask that Indonesian authorities “intercept” the boat carrying 254 travelling to Australia.
With good reason, the refugees fear being jailed in Indonesia for up to 10 years, or being deported back to Sri Lanka. More
Scoop – International Day of Action To Free Tamil Refugees
Monday, 18 January 2010, 9:48 am
Press Release: Priyaksha Pathmanathan
International Day Of Action To Free Tamil Refugees In Indonesia
Monday 18th January 2010,
As part of an international call to action, a number of organisations in New Zealand will join protesters from Australia, Canada USA, England, Indonesia and Malaysia to demand that the Australian Government take responsibility and accept the asylum seekers of Tamil origin who are moored off the coast of Indonesia.
As part of the Australian Government’s ‘Indonesian Solution’, Kevin Rudd personally requested that the Indonesian Navy intercept the boat to stop the people from entering Australian waters.
As of Monday, it will be 100 days since 254 Tamil Asylum Seekers refused to leave the boat for fear of being locked up in an Indonesian detention centre or being deported back to Sri Lanka.
The refugees are rightly demanding that they be given basic human rights and that Australia, as a signatory of the UN Refugee Convention, adhere to its international responsibilities.
The terrible treatment of desperate asylum seekers is a issue that is occurring in our own Asia-pacific region and it is imperative that New Zealand and Australia as one of the only signatories to the Refugee convention and a member of the Commonwealth Family, play a leadership role and maintain their moral authority with regard to issues that pertain to rights and responsibilities outlined in International Law and help maintain stability in this region. More details & background
SMH (06/12/09) - Sri Lankan Soldiers kill asylum seeker
Sri Lankan soldiers shooting at a group of people planning to flee to Australia killed a young man on Saturday on an eastern beach, the military said.
Military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said the army did not kill the man intentionally, but he was shot while allegedly trying to grab a weapon from a soldier.
Christian Sulojini said her 22-year-old son was among a group of about 30 people planning to take a voyage from a beach in eastern Santhiveli village when the army intercepted them early on Saturday.
She said soldiers opened fire when the group tried to flee.
Hundreds of Sri Lankans leave by boat each year looking for jobs in more prosperous countries. More than 250 Sri Lankans are being held in Indonesia after being intercepted in recent months trying to get to Australia.
Last month, the navy discovered four fishing boats carrying 100 asylum seekers off the southern coast.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs Sri Lanka – Investment Agreement between Sri Lanka and Australia
Australia is ranked the second largest investor in Sri Lanka and the entry into force of the Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement is expected to generate greater flow of Australian investments into Sri Lanka through the creation of an appropriate legal environment for such investment flows.
Read more here
Dr Susan Harris Rimmer is an academic at the Australian National University and is President of national NGO Australian Lawyers for Human Rights.
