Sri Lanka asylum seekers in limbo
For more than five months a group of nearly 240 Sri Lankan asylum seekers have been stranded in an Indonesian port.
The stand-off began when their boat was intercepted by the Indonesian navy following a tip-off from Australia.
The boat people, who are virtually cut off from outsiders, say they want to be resettled in Australia or overseas.
But Australia argues that the boat was intercepted in Indonesian waters so the people are Indonesia's problem.
Al Jazeera's Step Vaessen reports.
1 Comments
This is an issue created by the present prime minister of Australia, who on a tip off requested the Indonesians to stop this boat and which was done.
The asylum seekers stood their ground and refused to get off the boat, now a few have dis-embarked.
The costs of this whole excercise are borne by the Australian government, who reimburse the Indonesian government.
It would be cheaper and easier for the Australian government to process the paperwork and allow these folk to move to a few countries which will dance to their tunes.
The present prime minister has to be adamant as this is a sensitive issue with the majority of the population who themselves were migrants and this can make or break a government.
The previous prime minister, who was lagging behind in the polls at a previous election time suddenly found his messiah when a shipload of Afgan refugees arrived on the shores of Australia, he refused to allow them to disembark and packed them all off to Nauru, a bankrupt nation.
All the folk on this ship were found to be genuine refugees and were accepted by Australia and New Zealand.
This year alone more than twenty odd boats have made their way to Australian waters, even today there was another boat that was intercepted following, a distress call from the crew.
They are now sailing direct from Sri Lankan waters bypassing any un-necessary ports of call whenever this happens the would be asylum seekers are housed at a place called Christmas Island, which at the present moment seems to be bursting at it's seams.
Today's newspaper stated that Darwin will be the next refugee camp, the Tamils have a better chance of being accepted in Australia than the Sinhalese who have no hope in hell thanks to the end of the conflict.
The Sinhalese themselves have sought refuge in Australia, I know of a few including the parents of the famous one and only Rohan Gunaratne, who with the help of John Howard the ex-prime minister was able to find a refuge.
The Tamils have been loyal supporters of the ruling Labour Party and the present government should take the steps needed to end this stalemate. A j.