MEDIA RELEASE
Wednesday, 10 March 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
When will the nightmare end for “Kevin Rudd’s Tamils”?
ACTION FOR 234 TAMIL REFUGEES TRAPPED ON BOAT IN MERAK, INDONESIA
12noon, outside Immigration Dept, Casselden Place, cnr Spring and Lonsdale Sts, Melbourne
 On 18 October 2009, a boatload of Tamils fleeing genocide and civil war in Sri Lanka was making its way towards Australia, to seek asylum. There was nothing different about them from other Tamils who made this dangerous journey before and after them, now being processed on Christmas Island. But their ordeal was to become infinitely worse, after a phone call from Kevin Rudd. Rudd called the Indonesian President to demand that this boat be stopped and held in Indonesia. Wednesday, 10 March 2010, marks 150 days that 234 desperate men, women and children have been held on this boat off Merak harbour, in Indonesia, with no hope of freedom.
Refugee advocates, the Tamil community and Aboriginal activists will stage a lunchtime protest outside the Department of Immigration tomorrow (Wednesday) to demand the Australian Government process and settle the Tamil asylum seekers on the boat moored in Merak, Indonesia, in line with its obligations to the UN Refugee Convention. This is part of an International day of action to mark 150 days since the boat was intercepted on orders from Kevin Rudd. Prominent refugee lawyer David Manne will also address the gathering.
“Kevin Rudd used these desperate people as a publicity stunt in a domestic political debate about refugee policy in October. But their lives are at stake. They have suffered too much already. Kevin Rudd should pick up the phone again and end their suffering before anyone else dies,” said Sue Bolton of Melbourne’s Refugee Action Collective.
The action on Wednesday is one of several taking place in Australia and internationally.
Background information: The Jaya Lestari was seized by the Indonesian Navy on October 18, 2009 after Kevin Rudd phoned Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and personally requested the Indonesian government to intercept it.
The boat carried 255 Tamil asylum seekers fleeing the civil war in Sri Lanka, amongst them 31 children, 29 women (one of whom is about to give birth) and 195 men. Since then the boat has been moored in Merak in Western Java.
On 23 December 2009, a 29 year old man, George Jacob Samuel Christin, died on the boat after vomiting blood for two days and being refused medical treatment by Indonesian authorities. One man who obtained visa application forms for Australia was arrested and put into detention in Indonesia. |
Several asylum seekers have left the boat voluntarily, but the bulk of the passengers have refused to disembark in Indonesia, fearing imprisonment and deportation by the Indonesian authorities. Those who volunteered to disembark from the boat as urged by Indonesian immigration, IOM and other authorities are now detained in in even more subhuman conditions than the boat.
A significant proportion of the group have already been assessed as genuine refugees by the UNHCR. All have fled the aftermath of a brutal civil war in Sri Lanka, which has resulted in hundreds of thousands of ethnic Tamils becoming internally displaced within the country. Tens of thousands of Tamils are still being held in squalid military internment camps, subjected to rape and torture at the whim of the Sri Lankan Army, as confirmed by the Red Cross and Amnesty International.
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Media contact: Sue Bolton 0413 377 978 (Refugee Action Collective) |
