By

Chrishanthi Christopher

The fate of the 153 Sri Lankan asylum seekers, who allegedly left the shores of Pondicherry, India to Australia, is in limbo. Australia, determined to claim that ‘no boats arrived’ in its shores intercepted the boat carrying the asylum seekers, at mid sea.

It is learnt that the asylum seekers’ claims for refugees status is being assessed off the Australian waters.

Reportedly the boat carrying the refugees had got into distress in international waters, due to a shortage of fuel, and was intercepted by the Australian Coast Guard. Following this, the world lost contact with the boat and Australia continued to deny its existence for almost two weeks until its government was brought before a Melbourne Court by refugee rights activists demanding information about the boat and the people who were in it. Thereafter the Australian Government was compelled to admit to having intercepted the boat outside its territorial waters and proving the claim for asylum at high sea.

While human rights lawyers claim it is ‘piracy’ to hold the asylum seekers in the Indian Ocean, Australia Immigration and Border Control Minister, Scott Morrison, rejected the claims, and said Australia was very serious in its responsibilities for the safety of people attempting to come in. In a statement to the media, Morrison even said Australia priced its obligations to the conventions of which it is signatory.

Morrison last week paid a two day visit to Sri Lanka for the commissioning of two Australian-donated patrol boats to the Sri Lanka Navy, in a collaborative attempt to monitor the boats leaving the shores of the island.

Sri Lanka Navy Commander, Jayantha Perera acclaimed Australia’s decision to turn back the boats and said Sri Lankans do not have any claim to seek asylum in other countries as the 30-year war was now over. He opined that all those who go by boat to Australia are economic migrants.

Meanwhile, the Indian Government said it will not accept the boat people if Australia decides to send them back. India is also reiterating that Sri Lankans need not seek asylum in other countries. Last week the Indian Principal Secretary for Rehabilitation and Welfare of Non-resident Tamils in the State of Tamil Nadu, B. Anand, said the boat people will not be taken back into the country. He said the war is over and India has stopped accepting any fresh refugees from Sri Lanka and those refugees who left the shores of Tamil Nadu illegally will not be accepted again.

Plight of the 153 people

On the other hand, Australia argued that since the boat people were intercepted outside of its territorial waters and it is not obligated to grant asylum under its migration laws.

This raises the question about the plight of these 153 boat people and where they will go to, if Australia decides to return them. With no country to accept the refugees, what will be the plight of the 153 people in the boat, whose claims are being processed by the Australian immigration authorities, adopting an enhanced screening process.

However, on Monday a Melbourne Court gave the boat people including 37 young children and 32 women, a breath of respite when it ordered a 72-hour notice be given before any repatriation takes place.

The Australian Government is continuing with its ‘no boat people’ policy. It is screening several advertisements in the print and electronic media discouraging Sri Lankans from taking the voyage by boat. Australia has been successful in warding off the boats this year and claims that for the first time in six months no boats have reached its shores.

However, the claim has been shattered by the arrival of the two boats close to its waters. The boats, one allegedly from India and the other from Sri Lanka, have been successfully intercepted in mid sea.
The claims of the 46 Sri Lankan in the second boat had been quickly processed in mid sea and they were sent back home even while human rights activists cried foul. The Australian authorities handed over the 41 asylum seekers from Moratuwa and Panadura to the Sri Lanka Navy off the sea of Batticaloa. It is learnt that five asylum seekers have been kept back until their claims are determined.

In the meantime, Australian Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, is quoted as having said Australia will not comment on the fate of the 153 asylum seekers in the second boat, whose claims for asylum is being processed. She had refused to comment on the status of the boat people and had said the people smuggling trade is subject to the policies of operation sovereign borders and that Australia will not divulge information that can be used by people smugglers to ply their trade.

Afghan and Pakistani asylum seekers

Bishop’s comment brings into focus the people smuggling trade that is rampant in the third world countries torn by conflict and war. It is learnt that would be migrants sell their jewellery and property to pay the smugglers millions of rupees to get them to Western countries that would give them asylum.

Many Afghan and Pakistani asylum seekers in Sri Lanka at the moment seeking asylum in the West. They are using Sri Lanka as a transit country to have their papers processed. There has been a flood of asylum seekers ever since the on-line visa system was introduced in Sri Lanka. Smugglers are effectively using the system to smuggle people into the country.

This was evident from the many tales related by the Afghan and Pakistan refugees who gathered in front of the UNHCR following the rounding up of refugees by the Sri Lankan Government. It was revealed they had paid up to US$ 30,000 for an online visa and that these smugglers only get them the visas (online), paying only the visa fee and the would-be-migrants travel to Sri Lanka by plane at their own expense. Once in Sri Lanka, they are told to quickly register themselves with the UNHCR in Colombo.

Sri Lanka does not take refugees but it gives permission for asylum seekers to stay in the country, while their claims are being processed by the UNHCR. Sri Lanka started rounding up Afghan and Pakistani asylum seekers following intelligence that members of extremist groups may have entered the country.

While these people cry and lament pleading their host countries to have compassion on their plight, countries plagued with an influx refugees are uncompromising and taking strict measures to protect their borders. The Sri Lankan Government mid-June stopped issuing visas online to Pakistan and Afghan nationals. Despite the UNHCR crying out loud that the move is non-refoulement, the department of Immigration in a cleanup attempt is determined to send them back to their countries. Immigration Controller, Chulananda Perera said there will be no change in the policy.

The Australian Government on the other hand is in close collaboration with the Sri Lankan Government in its efforts to protect its borders.

Prime Minister Tony Abbot is reported to have said he is determined to stop the smugglers capitalizing on the human smuggling trade. “… give aid and comfort to the people smugglers and that’s not something I’, not going to do,” he had told Australian reporters.

Sri Lanka Human Rights Commissioner, Dr. Prathiba Mahanamahewa, has said the Sri Lankan people have no reason to travel to other countries and claim refugees status. The war is over and they have no genuine claims now.

However, if the boat people are to be sent back they have to be accepted by Sri Lanka. According to international law the people belong to the country they have their original citizenship.

They may have gone from India but they have illegally migrated to India during the height of the war. Most of these people might not have documental proof of their origins, but they could produce an affidavit and claim the right to live in the country they were born.

The Australian authorities during screening can determine to which country these people belong to. The Sri Lankan High Commission in Australia must liaise with the Australian authorities in this matter.
Police Media Spokesman, SSP, Ajith Rohana, said smuggling has become big business in the world second only to drug trafficking. Tony Abbot’s Government is very strict with people smugglers and does not want to encourage the trade. Also these people who pay millions of rupees to smugglers in search of better living often end up in detention camps or are sent to Papua New Guninea and Malaysia. Some of them even die in mid sea in the process.

“I advise these people not to take the risk and become victims to these smugglers, who are having a field day capitalizing on their plight,” he said.

Courtesy: Ceylon Today