REJECTED ASYLUM-SEEKER SELF-IMMOLATES IN SYDNEY

A Tamil asylum-seeker set himself on fire in Sydney last night after his appeal for refugee status was rejected.

Janarthanan

The man, believed to be in his late 20s, was taken to Concord Hospital after dousing himself in petrol outside his workplace in Balmain and setting himself alight. He has burns to about 98 per cent of his body. He is in an induced coma, having undergone at least two skin-graft operations. Doctors have told friends to organise for his 65-year-old mother and his brother to come to Australia urgently.

A friend, Balasingham Prabhakaran, said today the man, who is from the Batticaloa region in eastern Sri Lanka, had received a letter from the Immigration department telling him his application for a protection visa in Australia had been rejected and he must to return to Sri Lanka. He has been living in the community on a bridging visa for at least 18 months after fleeing Sri Lanka because of threats from authorities.

“He has told me he has a genuine fear about being sent back to Sri Lanka,” said Prabhakaran, who runs a 24-hour Tamil radio station in Sydney, Inbathamil Oli.

“He was very disillusioned after getting the letter on Tuesday. He rang many of his friends to say ‘hi’, and then after he finished his work as an office cleaner about 8.30 p.m., he went outside, and set himself alight. Apparently he swallowed the petrol before pouring it on himself. A number of workers from a nearby shipyard came to his aid, pouring water on him and trying to put out the flames.

“He had the can of petrol in his bag. It was obviously planned. They also found the rejection letter from Immigration and a two-page suicide note in his bag.”

Tamil Refugee Council spokesman, Aran Mylvaganam, said this sad case was further proof that the Australian government’s refugee policy was creating desperation among refugee and asylum-seeker communities. “I suppose the Minister for Immigration will just shrug this off as more collateral damage in the war on asylum-seekers,” he said.

For further information contact Tamil Refugee Council on 0400 597 351.

Tamil asylum seeker fighting for his life

By Sarah Whyte | Immigration correspondent

Sarah Whyte

The UN should be able to access Australia’s offshore detention network Greens Senator Larissa Waters says.

A Sri Lankan asylum seeker on a bridging visa is fighting for his life after dousing himself in petrol following a decision by the Australian immigration department to deport him back to Sri Lanka.

The man, whose first name is Janarthanan and who is in his late 20s, was on a bridging visa and had been working as a cleaner in Sydney’s inner-western suburb of Balmain.

The Tamil asylum seeker, who had been living in Australia for at least 18 months, was this week told by the department that his application for a permanent protection visa had been denied and he would have to return to Sri Lanka, the convener of the Tamil Refugee Council, Trevor Grant, said.

On Wednesday night Janarthanan doused himself in petrol and set himself alight shortly after 8.30pm near the shipyard in Balmain, causing severe burns to 70 per cent of his body.

NSW police confirmed the man was in a ”critical condition” in Concord Hospital on Thursday night.

Detention centres ‘gulags’
The UN should be able to access Australia’s offshore detention network Greens Senator Larissa Waters says.

Janarthanan, who had come to Australia after fleeing the Sri Lankan authorities, had left a suicide note saying he would rather die in Australia than die in Sri Lanka, Mr Grant said. Tamil asylum seekers are living in continual fear that they will be sent back to Sri Lanka, he said.

A report by the Human Rights Law Centre last month showed many asylum seekers who are sent back to the country face the threat of torture from the very authorities they had fled. Late last month the United Nations Human Rights Council ordered an international investigation into alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka. Australia did not co-sponsor the bill.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said it was a “deeply distressing incident”.

“The government’s focus is to ensure for the proper care and support of this young man, in partnership with the Sri Lankan high commission,” a spokesman for Mr Morrison said.

The government confirmed that the young man “was found not to be owed protection and this decision was affirmed on appeal by the Refugee Review Tribunal earlier this month”. courtesy: Sydney Morning Herald