Click here to see SBS News story (29/05) on how Ian Rintoul from the Refugee Action Coalition heckled Tony Abbott’s press conference outside Villawood.
Ian Rintoul has been a long standing refugee advocate and was very active during the Howard years.
ABC Online – Border protection protocols failing: Greens
The Greens say there needs to be a public inquiry into how the Federal Government responds to asylum seeker boats.
Five asylum seekers are presumed to have drowned in waters north-west of Australia after the boat they were in ran out of supplies and they decided to swim for help.
SMH - MPs seek probe of asylum seekers’ deaths
by Karlis Salna
The federal government is under pressure to hold an inquiry into the deaths of five asylum seekers believed to have drowned after abandoning their stricken vessel in search of help.
There are also calls for a review of protocols for monitoring and intercepting boats after it was revealed authorities knew almost two weeks ago the boat had run out of food, fuel and water.
Five Sri Lankan men disappeared when they went for help on a makeshift raft after their boat became disabled for a second time.
Authorities have begun taking statements from the 59 survivors, including 15 children, rescued near the Cocos Islands on Saturday by a Russian merchant ship. The survivors have now been transferred to Christmas Island. More
ABC – Customs slammed over response to stricken boat
Refugee advocates say they are astounded authorities did not do more to help a stricken boat of Sri Lankan asylum seekers off the Western Australian coast.
Customs officials say they were advised the boat carrying 64 people had run out of fuel, food and water while heading to Cocos Island on April 30.
They say a passing merchant ship provided assistance and reported they were in good health and their vessel was seaworthy.
Customs spokesman Phil Mayne says the boat was expected to arrive at Cocos Island on Wednesday, but a search was launched when it failed to turn up. More
The Age – Push for missing asylum seekers inquiry
News.com.au - Sri Lankans asylum seekers ‘panicked’ after stricken boat ran out of food, water
ABC Online -Customs slammed over asylum seeker drowning
Refugee advocates say they are astounded authorities did not do more to help a stricken boat of Sri Lankan asylum seekers off the Western Australian coast.
Customs officials say they were advised the boat carrying 64 people had run out of fuel, food and water while heading to Cocos Island on April 30.
They say a passing merchant ship provided assistance and reported they were in good health and their vessel was seaworthy.
Customs spokesman Phil Mayne says the boat was expected to arrive at Cocos Island on Wednesday, but a search was launched when it failed to turn up.
He says a spotter plane located the vessel 160 nautical miles west of Cocos on Thursday, and Customs alerted four ships in the area to try to reach the vessel.
A Russian ship reached them on Friday and was told that five people were missing, presumed dead, after they set out to swim for help.
Ian Rintoul from the Refugee Action Coalition, says the response by authorities appears inadequate.
“It does seem that there has been a real lack of responsibility by the authorities not to have sent a boat out immediately,” he said.
“They knew it was in trouble, they knew it was without food, they knew it was without fuel. To have left people on the sea in those conditions is inexcusable.”
He says it is a tragedy.
“We’re devastated, really, to hear that kind of news,” he said.
“The authorities were aware of the boat quite some time ago.
“For people to be left in a situation that people have made [a] desperate swim in the sea for help is a terrible, terrible thing to happen.”
SMH – Five asylum seekers feared drowned
The Australian – Boatpeople who swam for help feared dead
ABC Online – 5 missing from Cocos asylum boat
Herald Sun(7/05 - Asylum seeker boat located
ABC Online (7/05) – Stranded refugees taken to Cocos Islands
SEVEN MONTH STAND-OFF ENDS AS MERAK ASYLUM SEEKERS FORCED OFF BOAT.
RESETTLEMENT BALL NOW IN KEVIN RUDD’S COURT
Indonesian police and navy personnel this afternoon Jakarta time have acted to force almost 200 Tamil asylum seekers off their boat at Merak where they have been since 11 October 2009.
Despite please from the asylums seekers, Indonesian officials refused to allow legal aid or human rights representatives to supervise the
disembarkation.
Refugee supporters and representatives of the human rights commission are traveling to the Jakarta airport in an effort to gain access to the asylum seekers before they are moved to Tanjung Pinang.
Around 2pm, the asylum seekers living at the hostel near the wharf gate, including the pregnant lady from the hostel near the were placed on buses assembled at the wharf area t be taken to the Jakarta airport. It is
understood that they will be taken by plane to the Tanjung Pinang detention centre later this afternoon or evening.
The Tanjung Pinang detention centre is the same detention centre that housed the Tamils from the Oceanic Viking while their refugee claims were being processed.
UNHCR has told the asylum seekers that they will begin registering them within 24 hours of being relocated and will have completed processing within two months.
Before disembarkation, Indonesian officials also told the asylum seekers that they would be re-settled within twelve months.
“The seven month stand by the Tamil asylum seekers has been courageous.
Their defiance has killed off the Indonesian solution that Kevin Rudd tried to establish in October last year when he called the Indonesian president to intercept the boat. Ironically the Indonesian solution is one of the
factors driving asylum seekers to leave Indonesia,” said Ian Rintoul,
spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.
“They have defied the odds to ensure their refugee claims were not lost in the black hole of refugee processing in Indonesia. And the Indonesian government has made it clear there will be no repeat of either the Oceanic Viking or the Merak incidents
During the week, a letter from the Australian government was delivered to the Merak Tamils stating that the freeze on asylum application only applied in Australian and the best chance for processing and resettlement was to be had in Indonesia.
“Kevin Rudd now has the chance to live up to the offer in that letter. The Prime Minister and other ministers have stated that the Australian
government will play a role in the re-settlement of those referred by the UNHCR.
“It should immediately provide assistance to the Indonesian government and the UNHCR to process outstanding asylum claims in Indonesia and commit to resettling those found to be refugees.”
For more information contact Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713.
Speakout to stand up for refugee rights
5.30pm Friday 30 April, Town Hall
Speakers include members of Tamil and Afghan communities
Phil Glendenning, Edmund Rice Centre
George Newhouse, human rights lawyer
Lee Rhiannon, Greens
Michael Grewcock, author Border Crimes
Ian Rintoul, Refugee Action Coalition
Why you should come to the protest/get your union, organisation or network to endorse it/distribute posters and leaflets to advertise it
On Friday 10 April the Rudd government decided to freeze visa applications for Sri Lankan and Afghan refugees. Tamils and other opposition figures in Sri Lanka continue to suffer imprisonment and discrimination. Afghanistan remains war-torn and unsafe due to occupation by US, Australian and other troops. The fact that refugees are prepared to undertake the lengthy, dangerous journey to get to Australia by boat is proof enough of the danger they face at home.
This decision is likely to lead both to people being deported back to danger and indefinite detention of asylum seekers who cannot be sent back to their country of origin.
The Labor government has tried to pose as a humane alternative to the Liberals, while keeping most of the infrastructure and processes in place that marked out the Liberal government as a human rights violator. But this new development shows the lengths Labor will go to make themselves indistinguishable from the Liberals.
Come to the speakout to demand that the visa freeze on new applications for asylum from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan be lifted immediately, and that the Australian government instead must welcome refugee boats and put an end to the Howard government’s policy of offshore processing by closing the Christmas Island detention centre.
Below is the facebook event – please make sure you are down as “attending”, post it to your profile, and invite all your facebook friends
http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=113929258625417
For more information contact Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713. Copies of the leaflet and/or poster for the speakout, plus a new petition against the visa freeze can be emailed or posted to you if you contact Luke Weyland at lukeweyland@gmail.com
The Refugee Action Coalition meets at 6pm every second Monday, at the NSW Teachers Federation, 23-33 Mary St Surry Hills (between Reservoir and Albion Sts). NEXT MEETINGS: 6pm Mon 19 April, 6pm Mon 3 May.
Herald Sun – Tamil refugees told to get out of Sri Lanka or suffer persecution
By Ian McPhedran, Padraic Murphy
Thousands of desperate Tamil refugees in Sri Lanka have a stark choice: stay and be persecuted or risk the long, dangerous voyage to Australia.
A senior diplomat, experienced in people smuggling matters, said Sri Lanka’s government cared about neither the refugees’ fate nor Australia’s boat people predicament.
Naval intelligence sources told the Herald Sun that Colombo encouraged Tamils to risk the dangerous voyage. More
ABC (10/03) - Fears Australia has forgotten boatful of Tamils
Refugee advocates have staged a rally in the eastern Australian city of Sydney to mark 150 days since a boat load of asylum seekers moored in Indonesia.
About 50 protesters gathered today outside the Prime Minister’s Sydney office.
Greens MP Sylvia Hale says the government has turned a blind eye to the 230 Tamils still onboard the boat moored at the port of Merak.
“Allow those Tamil refugees to proceed to Australia. ”
Ian Rintoul, from the Refugee Action Coalition, says conditions aboard the ship are getting worse – including a recent outbreak of chicken pox.
“There’s simply ongoing problems with getting proper medical attention,” he said.
The ship has been moored since October when it was intercepted by the Indonesian navy on the way to Australia. More
China Worker (10/03)- “Australian government should act to end this suffering now” – “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung at 10 March demonstration
150 days on a cramped, squalid boat. That is the ordeal faced by 254 refugees from Sri Lanka stranded in the Javanese port of Merak. The Merak refugees have become a political football between the political leaders of Australia and Indonesia, who were also meeting on 10 March, as rights campaigners staged protests around the world to demand speedy action to restore the basic right to asylum to the refugees.
Tuesday March 8, 2010
Refugee Action Coalition
Ian Rintoul
phone 0417 275 713
150 Days at Merak: Protests Call to Resettle the Refugees, End the Indonesia Solution
Protests in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and London on Wednesday 10 March will mark the 150th day of the asylum boat stranded at Merak and coincide with the Indonesian President Yudhoyono’s visit to Australia.
Refugee advocates and representatives of the Tamil communities are calling on the Australian and Indonesian governments to end the misery of the Tamil asylum seekers at Merak. The asylum seekers – among them 109 UNHCR certified refugees – have been stranded at Merak for five months.
If they had been allowed to come to Christmas Island their refuge determination process would be completed. Some of them would be probably already be living in the Australian community,” said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition
“There is no future for them in Indonesia. The detention centres are full. It seems the Indonesian government has nowhere to accommodate them even if they would get off the boat. UNHCR processing can take years, with no guarantee of re-settlement to a third country. There is no incentive for them to leave the boat until there is a guarantee of re-settlement.
“A long term solution for a humane regional refugee policy must include an agreement with Indonesia for the processing and re-settlement of refugees. Although Australia is the only signatory to the Refugee Convention in the region and the only re-settling country, Australia took only 32 UNHCR refugees from Indonesia last year.
“Until there is an agreement that deals with resettlement, asylum seekers will be a source of tension between the two countries. Simply paying for Indonesia to effectively out-source Australian detention centres is only making the situation worse.
Australian government Ministers and the Prime Minister have publicly states that Australia will play a role in resettling refuge from Merak after UNHCR processing. So has the US State Department. But so far Australia has avoided giving any specific undertaking to Indonesia regarding re-settlement.
“The Merak refugees are the meat in the sandwich. The Indonesian government can act immediately to immigration verify and allow UNHCR processing to begin while the Tamils are still on board. The ball will then be in Australia’s court to commit to resettling the Merak people,” said Rintoul.
** The Sydney protest will be held, Wednesday 10 March, 12.30pm at 70 Philip Street, City. Speakers will include representatives from the Tamil community.
** A delegation of refugee advocates and Tamil community representatives (including Sara Nathan, who was deported from Indonesia in January following a humanitarian mission to the Merak boat) will deliver a letter for the Indonesian president to the Sydney Indonesian consulate at 236 Maroubra Rd, Maroubra, 10.30am Thursday 11 March.
For more information, contact Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713
