Injured asylum seeker to be sent to Nauru

A SRI Lankan asylum seeker with shrapnel embedded in his brain from a bomb, and mental health problems, will be sent to Nauru tomorrow after Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews refused to intervene in his case.

The 31-year-old Tamil, who was one of 83 Sri Lankan asylum seekers intercepted by the Navy near Christmas Island, has been receiving medical care in Perth since February.

Lawyers for the man, who has asked not to be identified to protect his family, wrote to Mr Andrews asking him to intervene and allow the man to apply for protection through Australia's onshore system.

Under Australian law, the 83 Sri Lankans are prohibited from applying for onshore protection unless the minister exercises his personal discretion because they first entered at an excised part of Australian territory.

The man still has shrapnel embedded in his brain after a Sri Lankan Government raid in 2000 that decimated 80 per cent of the houses in his town of Chavakachcheri on the Jaffna Peninsula.

His uncle, Dr Tivi Thievianathan, a CSIRO scientist who has lived in Australia for 23 years, said that on Nauru his nephew would not have the support of about 20 relatives in Australiau.

"We don't want to lose him," Dr Thievianathan told The Age. "I am very shocked and disappointed. I am only asking the Government to consider him on humanitarian grounds."

He said his nephew, who had been working as a trader in Colombo, had been terrified he would be kidnapped and held to ransom by extortionists.

The UN refugee agency said in its December 2006 report that Tamils in Colombo were especially vulnerable to abductions, disappearances and killings, allegedly conducted by the paramilitary "white vans" suspected of being associated with the security forces.

Dr Thievianathan said being sent to Nauru would heighten his nephew's anxiety about being returned to Sri Lanka, where he would be a "marked man".

The man's lawyer, David Manne, of the Refugee and Immigration Legal Centre, said Parliament had given the minister the discretion to intervene on humanitarian grounds.

"If this case doesn't meet the humanitarian litmus test, it's hard to say what would," Mr Manne said. A spokeswoman for Mr Andrews said: "He has been assessed as fit to fly and he will join the other illegal arrivals on Nauru later this week."

Andrews won't intervene for sick detainee
June 12, 2007 08:57am
Article from: AAP

A SICK Sri Lankan asylum seeker will be sent to Nauru this week after federal Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews refused to intervene.

The 31-year-old Tamil was one of 83 Sri Lankan asylum seekers intercepted by Australian authorities earlier this year and taken to Christmas Island.

In February he was assessed as needing medical attention and taken to Perth for treatment.

But doctors say he is now fit to travel.

Mr Andrews has refused to intervene in the case, so the man will be transported to Nauru.

"As I understand, he applied to be assessed here, as opposed to the other members of the group, and there was no reason, other than he was needing medical attention, as to why he wasn't with the group that went to Nauru, and now that he's fit to fly he can join his compatriots," a spokeswoman for Mr Andrews said today.

It is understood the man has mental health problems and has shrapnel embedded in his brain from a bomb.

But Mr Andrews's spokeswoman said the man was fit to fly.

"As to the nature of what his current condition is, I'm not too sure, but we relied heavily on medical advice in that instance and he's been assessed as medically fit so he'll be transported to Nauru later this week," she said.

END