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Refugee Update
Jul. 1st, 2014 06:21 pmETA: There is speculation that the Tamil asylum seekers have in fact already been handed over to the Sri Lankan navy. (The latter denies this.)
A boat containing 153 Tamil asylum seekers, including 37 children, one of whom is a one year old baby, has been intercepted off the coast of Christmas Island. The government refuses to admit their existence. They're being held incommunicado, though they have presumably been removed from the boat; their current situation and condition is unknown. The Tamils may be forcibly returned to Sri Lanka, where they may face torture, without their claims for asylum being considered, as per Australia's agreement with Sri Lanka. A second boat is also believed to have been stopped by a Customs vessel.
Also on the subject of refoulement, or the driving back of victims into the hands of their victimisers: Scott Morrison's foul bet on torture: "Until now, asylum has been available to those who can establish there is a 10 per cent chance they will be tortured if sent home." Under the proposed Migration Amendment (Protection and Other Measures) Bill 2014, that chance will be raised to 50 per cent. (IIUC this will not affect those seeking asylum under the Refugee Convention, but those seeking asylum under the Convention on Torture or the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, additional human rights treaties which Australia has also ratified.)
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison's has recorded an "orientation video" to be shown to asylum seekers detained in offshore centres, telling them to choose between detention or return. Senator Hanson-Young summed up their situation: "Vulnerable asylum seekers are being presented with the worst of two evils, either return to the horrors from which you fled or suffer in the camps of cruelty. What is clear now is that there is nothing voluntary about these returns, it is clear coercion."
Reza Berati's alleged murderer has fled Manus Island before he could be arrested, and police are searching for him elsewhere in PNG. ETA: An asylum seeker who lost an eye as a result of the violence on Manus is suing both G4S and the Australian government.
All of this is of course in sharp contrast to Australia's model treatment of Vietnamese refugees in the 1970s. One such survivor, Hieu Van Le, will now become the Governor of South Australia.
A boat containing 153 Tamil asylum seekers, including 37 children, one of whom is a one year old baby, has been intercepted off the coast of Christmas Island. The government refuses to admit their existence. They're being held incommunicado, though they have presumably been removed from the boat; their current situation and condition is unknown. The Tamils may be forcibly returned to Sri Lanka, where they may face torture, without their claims for asylum being considered, as per Australia's agreement with Sri Lanka. A second boat is also believed to have been stopped by a Customs vessel.
Also on the subject of refoulement, or the driving back of victims into the hands of their victimisers: Scott Morrison's foul bet on torture: "Until now, asylum has been available to those who can establish there is a 10 per cent chance they will be tortured if sent home." Under the proposed Migration Amendment (Protection and Other Measures) Bill 2014, that chance will be raised to 50 per cent. (IIUC this will not affect those seeking asylum under the Refugee Convention, but those seeking asylum under the Convention on Torture or the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, additional human rights treaties which Australia has also ratified.)
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison's has recorded an "orientation video" to be shown to asylum seekers detained in offshore centres, telling them to choose between detention or return. Senator Hanson-Young summed up their situation: "Vulnerable asylum seekers are being presented with the worst of two evils, either return to the horrors from which you fled or suffer in the camps of cruelty. What is clear now is that there is nothing voluntary about these returns, it is clear coercion."
Reza Berati's alleged murderer has fled Manus Island before he could be arrested, and police are searching for him elsewhere in PNG. ETA: An asylum seeker who lost an eye as a result of the violence on Manus is suing both G4S and the Australian government.
All of this is of course in sharp contrast to Australia's model treatment of Vietnamese refugees in the 1970s. One such survivor, Hieu Van Le, will now become the Governor of South Australia.
