Truth Overboard on Sri Lankan Asylum Seekers

MEDIA RELEASE

Truth Overboard Again as Government Deals to Return Sri Lankan Asylum Seekers

Refugee groups are calling on the Immigration minister to give an unequivocal assurance that the Sri Lankan asylum seekers on Christmas Island will not be returned to Indonesia.

Fears that the Sri Lankans will be removed have grown since a high ranking Indonesian immigration official told a current affairs television program that negotiations with the Australia government were based on the understanding that the asylum seekers will be returned to Sri Lanka.

“The Immigration Minister needs to come clean and give an unequivocal commitment that the Sri Lankan asylum seekers will not be sent back to Indonesia. We want the Sri Lankans bought to the mainland so their asylum applications can be properly processed,” said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.

“There are too many questions about the government actions. It smacks of the lies and media spin that surrounded the children overboard affair.

“Have Australian officials been discussing the return of the asylum seekers with the Indonesian authorities? Has there been any contact with the Sri Lankan government concerning their return? What role has the former head of the immigration department and now Australian ambassador had in the negotiations?”

“The Minister says that there have been ‘preliminary’ discussions with Indonesia. It now seems that they were preliminary discussions about violating the human rights of Sri Lankan asylum seekers. The discussions may also have involved representatives of the very government from which they are fleeing.

“We also want the truth about the content of the discussions that went on last year concerning the West Papuans. What exactly is the content of the Australian government agreement about the treatment of future asylum seekers from West Papua? Is Indonesia’s accepting the return of asylum seekers from Australian territory the price demanded by Australia for stopping or returning West Papuans?

“This is not the first time that the Australian government has leant on Indonesia to do its dirty work. There are still Afghan and Iraqi asylum seekers being warehoused on Lombok and other places in Indonesia after being returned there following the Tampa incident in 2001.

“This sordid affair shows what is wrong with the Pacific solution and what is wrong with the detention centre at Christmas Island. The government is maintaining prisons on remote islands to avoid public scrutiny and to avoid its obligations to asylum seekers.

“We will be doing all we can to encourage the Sri Lankan asylum seekers to resist any removal to Indonesia.

ENDS

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