Weekly Refugee Posting 3: Indonesia, cont.

The Australian Navy has forced at least five asylum seeker boats back into to Indonesian waters, violating Indonesia's borders, a serious action which has understandably angered our neighbours and is the subject of a Navy inquiry (the results of which may not be made public, hey ho.) The forcing back of boats may be illegal under the Refugee Convention.

Two asylum seekers jumped from their towed boat into the sea in an apparent suicide attempt, but were rescued. Others have jumped into the water in protest. Reports of the Navy's treatment include warning shots being fired, asylum seekers being given only one meal a day, the abandoning of one boatload of asylum seekers in a lifeboat near the Indonesian coastline, and another in their own boat, which ran out of fuel and ran aground. A Sudanese asylum seeker stated that the Navy handcuffed asylum seekers, denied them water, and "called us inhuman words, like illegal refugees, monkeys from Africa." (AFAIK none of this will be the subject of an inquiry.)

This opinion piece does a great job of summing up the whole mess: No joke, navy captains' intent a critical issue for Australia. Another piece, Government secrecy and leaky asylum-seeker boats, describes the suspicion and distrust caused by the secrecy around the Navy's anti-refugee operations.