by delegating responsibility

BILL FARMER was head honcho in the immigration department through the dark days of — children overboard • Siev-X drownings • deaths in detention • Cornelia Rau • Vivian Solon — you name it, the whole human rights abuse debacle.

Former Prime Minister John Howard rewarded Bill Farmer with a posting to Indonesia as Ambassador, where he no doubt had a hand in the following deals.

Australia has charged Indonesia with the responsibility of stopping asylum seekers making it to Australian shores. We are paying them millions of dollars to do it. Australia is thus saved from fulfilling its responsibility to the Refugee Convention which we signed. But Indonesia has not signed the same convention, so it's behaviour is not governed by human rights niceties.

This story below sounds the alarm for Australia's agreements with Indonesia on asylum seekers. Indonesia is now sending 193 Rohingyas back to Burma. These men survived the brutality of the Thai navy's attempt to drown them. Starved, beaten, and nearly drowned, they are now being handed back to their persecutors in Burma — while the UNHCR watches.

And Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has just appoined Bill Farmer as our representative to the United Nations.

Pamela Curr
Campaign co-ordinator
Asylum Seeker Resource Centre
www.asrc.org.au

Indonesia will repatriate stranded Burmese
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-01/30/content_10737362.htm

JAKARTA, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia will send 193 Roohingyas refugees to their home country Myanmar after their boat stranded on a small island off Aceh province early this month, foreign ministry said here Friday.

Spokesman of the Ministry Teuku Faizasyah said that the ministry had concluded the investigation of the purpose of the boat people since the beginning of their stranding and now it was strengthened by more information gathered by a team from the ministry who were visiting the refugees in Aceh along with the International Organization of Migrant (IOM) at the recent days.

"The result of the collecting information since the beginning until today is very strong that their motives are for economy," he told Xinhua over phone.

"So, we will deport them," Faizasyah stressed.

However, the time for deportation had not determined yet, he said.

The Rohingyas are Muslims minority from Myanmar.

Indonesian authorities have sent the stranded refugees to Sabang naval base in Sabang town of Aceh province.