Sri Lankan breakout

Three men (see below) face a possible maximum sentence of 7 years jail for leaving the Christmas Island detention camp without permission for 11 hours.

They had just been told their visa applications were refused, they would never come to Australia, and had two choices: to go home voluntarily, or be forcibly sent back.

Unlike all other detainees on Christmas island, these men did not have the benefit of legal advice to make sense of their situation. A few hours later, in the early hours of the morning, three of the men who are Catholic fishermen from Sri Lanka, decided to seek the advice of a priest as to what to do, so they left the camp to look for a church.

The AFP (Australian Federal police), who have the dual roles on Christmas Island as local police on the island, as well as chief interrogators for the anti people smuggling task force, decided — 3 months after the event — to charge them with the offence of escape. DIAC concurred in this decision.

The AFP then posted signs on the road — 3 DETAINEES ESCAPE — DO NOT APPROACH. As a consequence, when the men failed to find the church and tried to give themselves up, the locals ran away from them!

If you think these charges are a disproportionate response to these men leaving custody for 11 hours, a polite email to the Minister's office may assist in guiding wiser and more understranding minds to review the decision to charge.

EMAIL Minister Evans here http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/senators/homepages/contact.asp?id=AX5

Regards
Pamela Curr
14 April 2009

Article from: The Australian
Sri Lankan asylum seekers in breakout from Christmas Island
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25330981-601,00.html
Paige Taylor | April 14, 2009

THREE Sri Lankan fishermen are the first asylum seekers on Christmas Island to be charged with escaping custody after they bolted from the old detention centre last December at the height of the debate over the Rudd Government's reluctance to use the island's long-vacant new $400 million high-security centre.

The new detention facility, built by the Howard government with security akin to a supermax prison, received its first detainees within days of the escape and recapture of the three Sinhalese Catholic men on December 19.

Thusara Warnakulasuriya and brothers Endika and Sumit Mendis roamed the island for 11 hours after scaling a fence and walking away undetected by guards late on December 18 or in the early hours of December 19.

They were found mid-morning near the island's school by Australian Federal Police, who had earlier put up signs in the small community of 1400 people warning: "Three escaped detainees - do not approach."

The men have been charged by the AFP with escaping lawful custody under section 146 of the Australian Migration Act. If they are convicted, they each face a maximum of seven years' in jail.

The escapees said that they were trying to find a priest on December 19 after being told the day before by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship that their applications for asylum had been rejected. The men were to be deported the next day but have now spent an extra four months on the island.

They are with 183 other detainees at the high-security immigration detention centre on the island's remote northwest point and will be brought before a visiting magistrate in June.

There are 60 adults and children in family groups staying at a former construction camp close to the settlement. A further 17 asylum seekers are living in community detention.

The three Sinhalese men, who were taken under guard to an Easter church service on Sunday, were among a group of 10 Sri Lankans who landed at Shark Bay, on the West Australian mainland, on December 7.

The three are appealing against initial decisions not to grant them asylum.

An Immigration Department spokesman said two of their fellow travellers had voluntarily returned home.

Refugee advocate Pamela Curr said the criminal charges for escaping custody showed a punitive attitude to three vulnerable men who left the detention centre in torment to seek advice and the solace of a church.

"These men had not had the benefit of legal advice and in their distress, being Catholic, they went looking for a church," she said. "These men had just been told they would never be able to come to Australia."

The Immigration Department maintains the decision to open the 800-bed high-security detention centre was not related to the men's escape.

Ms Curr said the timing of the escape, as pressure mounted on the Rudd Government to use the new high-security detention centre, was unfortunate for the men. She also feared the men were now being made examples of by the department.

The decision to move detainees to the new high-security centre, 17km from the settlement, in a corner of jungle and surrounded by cliffs, was not taken lightly by Senator Evans.

He had been indicating that other options, such as community detention and the construction camp near the old detention centre, were preferable.

The Australian Human Rights Commission inspected the facility last year and called it "a formidable high-security facility that the commission believes should not be used".