Tamil Justice

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

ABC – Chickenpox threatens Merak asylum seekers

People smuggling will be a main topic of talks between the leaders of Australia and Indonesia tomorrow amid claims that a potentially deadly chickenpox outbreak threatens asylum seekers docked in an Indonesian port.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono have yet to discuss an issue that has strained bilateral relations – the fate of more than 200 Sri Lankan asylum seekers on a boat docked in Merak.

The asylum seekers have spent almost 150 days on board.

A spokesman claims there has been an outbreak of chickenpox among the asylum seekers and one doctor fears it could endanger the lives of at least three children on board.

The boat’s self-appointed spokesman, Alex, vanished last week. One of the asylum seekers, 33-year-old Shan from Jaffna in Sri Lanka, says he is hopeful a decision is made in their favour soon.

Shan says there is no consensus onboard about whether the group will disembark or hold out, but now the asylum seekers have new concerns.

“They’re too tired mentally and physically; too tired in here,” Shan said.

“The people are suffering many, many things like rash, diarrhoea, vomiting, 24 people suffering from chickenpox.”

‘Not one will survive’

Dr Brian Senewiratne, an Australian doctor of Sinhalese origin, has spoken with those on board and he says chickenpox is a deadly threat to those in a weakened state.

“If that chickenpox spreads to the children there will be an epidemic of chickenpox,” he said.

“One of the complications of chickenpox in these malnourished, neglected children who are undernourished and generally rundown is that the chickenpox gets into the bloodstream and then gets to the brain. The technical condition is called encephalitis.

“The death rate under the age of five from the chickenpox encephalitis is almost 100 per cent, if not 100 per cent.

“On that boat, I can assure you that if the children get the chickenpox encephalitis, not one will survive.”

A spokesman for Indonesia’s department of foreign affairs, Teuku Faizasyah, says he has not been told about any chickenpox outbreak.

“I haven’t got any information yet if there’s any occurrence of chickenpox,” he said.

“But as you see, chickenpox is something that normally happens in Indonesia and in many other countries at a certain time in the year.”

No special treatment

He says the Indonesian government does not believe refugees on board the boat at Merak should be processed urgently, like the refugees on board the Oceanic Viking.

“We don’t want to create a situation when special treatment given creates conditions where more people will come to our area expecting similar treatment be given to them,” he said.

“After the Oceanic Viking case, we realised this is not a very good situation because it creates expectations.”

Mr Yudhoyono, meanwhile, became an Honorary Companion in the Order of Australia on Tuesday – the first day of his visit to Australia.

The award was bestowed for strengthening the Australia-Indonesia relationship.

The West Australian – Spies to take on people smugglers

Kevin Rudd is to give Australia’s top spy agency ASIO a new mission: protecting Australia from people smugglers.

The West Australian understands the Prime Minister intends rewriting ASIO’s 60-year-old charter to extend its responsibilities beyond preventing espionage and sabotage to border protection.

Up until now, ASIO has been classed as purely a domestic intelligence agency but its new remit would also make it responsible for pursuing and gathering information against people smugglers.

As part of the Government’s revamp of the agency’s powers, the Telecommunications Interception and Access Act will be amended to allow ASIO greater use of covert phone tapping of criminal syndicates.

A source told The West Australian that ASIO came across “plenty of product” in its current activities that it could not fully use in the wider pursuit of highly organised people smugglers.

Since the surge of boat arrivals began in late 2008, information obtained by Australian intelligence agencies has been increasingly passed on to Indonesian authorities in an attempt to stem the trade.

While the Government is yet to release the legislative changes to ASIO’s charter and the phone tap laws, the Prime Minister’s national security adviser, Duncan Lewis, briefed the Opposition on the broad plan last Friday.

The Opposition has given the Government in-principle support for the changes, in keeping with the convention to maintain bipartisanship on national security issues. The legislation is expected to be introduced at the end of the month.

A spokesman for Attorney-General Robert McClelland was tight-lipped about the looming shake-up in the spy agency.

“There is no legislation currently scheduled to be introduced in relation to these issues,” the spokesman said. “Obviously, the adequacy of border security arrangements remains under constant review.”

In return for greater cooperation with Australia on border protection, Indonesia has been lobbying for greater access to information gathered by ASIO, ASIS and the federal police.

“As part of our rolling cooperation with Indonesia on the challenge of asylum seekers we have had a whole range of discussions over a long period of time about how that cooperation should be unfolded,” Mr Rudd told Parliament yesterday.

The Prime Minister admitted the Government may be forced to help resettle a group of Tamil refugees camped on a boat at the Indonesian port of Merak.

The 240 asylum seekers have been aboard the boat for almost four months after being intercepted by Indonesian authorities following a phone call from Mr Rudd to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Indonesia said yesterday it wanted to avoid using force as a way of breaking the stand-off. The Tamils fear they will be forced to wait years for resettlement if they come ashore.

Mr Rudd yesterday brushed off claims ASIO had rushed the security assessments of Tamils involved in last year’s Oceanic Viking stand-off, saying ASIO’s security processing for the group had been within the average time of 35 days.

BBC – Sri Lankan refugees in limbo at Indonesian port

Press Trust India – 100 SL Tamil refugees denied asylum by Indonesia

Nearly 100 Sri Lankan Tamil refugees were denied asylum by Indonesia as it was not a signatory to the 1951 UN Convention relating to the status of refugees, a senior Indonesian official said.

The Sri Lankan Tamils were aboard a ship at the Indonesian port of Merk last month, K J Kumar, Honorary Consul, Consulate of Indonesia at Chennai, who was here to deliver a lecture on ‘Indo-Indonesia relations’, told reporters here yesterday.

Kumar said the Indonesian Government had offered to talk with the refugees, but the crewmen were not ready to send their representatives.

AAP – Indonesia to end asylum-seeker stand-off

Indonesia hopes to end a long-running asylum seeker stand-off at a Javan port by the end of the month, an official says.

More than 240 Sri Lankan asylum seekers have spent almost four months refusing to leave their rickety cargo boat in Merak.