{"id":31409,"date":"2014-07-02T17:47:29","date_gmt":"2014-07-02T21:47:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=31409"},"modified":"2014-07-02T22:12:29","modified_gmt":"2014-07-03T02:12:29","slug":"australian-govt-secretly-hands-over-153-sri-lankan-tamil-asylum-seekers-on-refugee-ship-to-sri-lankan-navy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=31409","title":{"rendered":"Australian Govt Secretly Hands Over 153 Sri Lankan Tamil Asylum Seekers on Refugee Ship to Sri Lankan Navy"},"content":{"rendered":"

By
\nSarah Whyte<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"SLAU013113\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Australian government is refusing to comment on reports circulating on Christmas Island that 153 Tamil asylum seekers have been handed over to the Sri Lankan navy.<\/p>\n

The asylum seekers, who have not communicated with civilians since Saturday morning, were on a boat allegedly intercepted by the Australian navy near Christmas Island, president of the Shire of Christmas Island Gordon Thomson said. They were then handed over to Sri Lanka\u2019s military.<\/p>\n

Refugee advocates lost contact with the boat on Saturday morning, sparking fears the phone on board had been confiscated.
\n
\nLabor MP Alannah MacTiernan said the whole of Christmas Island knew that asylum boats had been intercepted on the weekend and questioned why the government is being so tight-lipped about their fate.<\/p>\n

A spokesman for Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said the government\u2019s policy was that it did not confirm nor otherwise comment on reports of on-water activities in relation to Operation Sovereign Borders.<\/p>\n

A spokesman for the Sri Lankan military late on Tuesday denied the reports. \u2018\u2018We are not aware of any arrangements of the Australian Navy handing over refugees, to Sri Lankan Navy,\u2019\u2019 he told ABC Radio.
\nBut human rights lawyers have been desperately trying to contact the asylum seekers, saying it is profoundly concerning that the plight of these people remains in a shroud of secrecy.<\/p>\n

Fairfax Media understands a group of lawyers have obtained four names and the dates of birth of passengers believed to be on the vessel, which had spent two weeks travelling from India.
\nThe existence of a second vessel carrying 50 asylum seekers has not been confirmed, but Fairfax Media understands it too may have departed from somewhere other than Indonesia.<\/p>\n

Human rights lawyer David Manne said Australians had the right to know whether the Abbott government was upholding its international obligations in providing protection to people needing protection.<\/p>\n

“These people appear to be unable to access basic information about their rights and we don\u2019t know where they are,\u2019\u2019 Mr Manne, the executive director of the Refugee and Immigration Legal Centre, said.
\n“They can\u2019t get in contact with anyone and critical questions about their fate continue to be raised and remain unanswered.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Director of the Human Rights Legal centre Daniel Webb agreed, saying that a government confident its actions were lawful and decent shouldn\u2019t go to such extraordinary lengths to prevent scrutiny.<\/p>\n

“There are serious questions about whether our government is complying with domestic and international laws. The answers to those questions depend on the facts but our government won\u2019t give us any,\u2019\u2019 Mr Webb said.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Mr Morrison would not take questions from reporters in Canberra after he gave a pep talk to Customs officers, congratulating them on the “difficult\u2019\u2019 job they perform.<\/p>\n

“We know the work we ask you to do is difficult, the decisions we ask you to take in the context of the policies can be hard but the border protection command has never flinched,\u2019\u2019 he told Customs officers.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Tony Abbott also refused to answer questions about the possible return of the Tamil asylum seekers to Sri Lanka, only repeating that the government was “stopping the boats\u2019\u2019.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m not going to comment on the operational details of what happens on the water but obviously we have been successful up till now,\u2019\u2019 he told ABC radio.<\/p>\n

Greens immigration spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young said the government should be doing everything to offer protection to these people.<\/p>\n

“I am extremely concerned about the children who were on this boat, the minister must confirm what is happening to these children,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We shouldn\u2019t be deporting these people, we should be assessing their claims here in Australia.”<\/p>\n

Courtesy:Sydney Morning Herald<\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sarah Whyte The Australian government is refusing to comment on reports circulating on Christmas Island that 153 Tamil asylum seekers have been handed over to the Sri Lankan navy. The asylum seekers, who have not communicated with civilians since Saturday morning, were on a boat allegedly intercepted by the Australian navy near Christmas Island, …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Australian Govt Secretly Hands Over 153 Sri Lankan Tamil Asylum Seekers on Refugee Ship to Sri Lankan Navy’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31409"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31409"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31422,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31409\/revisions\/31422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}