Five Sri Lankan asylum seekers who spent a year on Nauru and were brought from Nauru to Curtin detention centre two months ago have been told they will be deported to Sri Lanka.
One of them, a 42 year-old Sinhalese asylum seeker, is scheduled for removal tomorrow, Friday 11 October.
Urgent efforts are underway to try and prevent these removals.
The five asylum seekers have been on Nauru for around one year and have been in Curtin detention since mid-August. Some of them had initial interviews, but none have had refugee assessments on Nauru.
They have been given no reasons for their removal from Nauru to the Curtin detention centre. When they arrived at the Curtin detention centre they were told that as they were now in Australia, whatever process had taken place on Nauru would be of no account, and that would be treated as if they arrived in Australia.
“This incident exposes the fiction that the Nauru government is running the Nauru detention centre or making the refugee determinations of those in detention on Nauru. It is a complete scandal,” said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.
“It seems someone in the Australian immigration department is actually making the decisions about who is going to be processed and the circumstances in which they will be processed or not. Both the Nauru government and the Immigration department have some explaining to do – either Nauru is processing asylum seekers on Nauru or its not.
“The Nauru government has already abandoned over 150 asylum seekers who have been assessed, but not told of the result of that assessment. They have been left rotting in appalling conditions in a bare tent encampment while they wait for the Nauru government’s decision. Tensions are again building inside the camp.
“But any asylum seekers brought to Australia from Nauru would be entitled to make an application for protection in Australia. That is what we expect the Immigration department to allow the asylum seekers in Curtin to do – respect their rights and allow them to make and properly process their asylum claims.”
For more information contact Ian Rintoul mob 0417 275 713
