Media Release, April 21 2010<\/p>\n
Refugee advocates today confirmed that around 50 Tamil asylum seekers from the boat at Merak made it to Christmas Island over the past weeks and that initial processing of their asylum claims has begun.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir arrival in Christmas Island is a tribute to their courage and determination They have defied Kevin Rudd\u2019s attempt to subvert the Refugee Convention by denying them entry to Australia and they have blown a hole in the Indonesia Solution, \u201csaid Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sorry saga of the Merak asylum seekers has revealed just how arbitrary Kevin Rudd\u2019s refugee policy has become. The Merak asylum seekers were always Australia\u2019s responsibility and their claim for asylum will now be determined in Australia. The really shameful part of this is that there claims should have been heard in October last year,\u201d said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.<\/p>\n
\u201cKevin Rudd\u2019s phone call to stop the boat has inflicted six months of unnecessary misery on these asylum seekers. It has now left the 140 taken from the boat to Tanjung Pinang in limbo.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe conditions at Tanjung Pinang are even worse than Curtin. Women and children have been separated from the men leaving husbands and fathers separated from their families. Men, women and children are behind bars, under 24 hour surveillance.<\/p>\n
Up to 45 men are held together in on cell with bare concrete floor.<\/p>\n
\u201c \u2018We cannot stay here. We are not criminals. Please tell Kevin Rudd\u2019, one asylum seeker told the Refugee Action Coalition from Tanjung Pinang, \u201cThe water is yellow \u2013 we are very worried about our health and the health of the children.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
The Refugee Action Coalition was also told that there is also insufficient water for toilets and washing and bathing.<\/p>\n
\u201cUNHCR has lived up to its promise of registering people with 24 hours of their re-location. Officials expect to have completed registration by Saturday and have told the asylum seekers that processing will be completed by July,\u201d said Rintoul.<\/p>\n
\u201cKevin Rudd and other Ministers indicated that Australia will play a role in re-settling Merak refugees referred to the government by the UNHCR. A letter from the Australian government (attached) delivered to the boat days before disembarkation indicates that processing in Indonesia could secure resettlement in Australia. The ban of Sri Lankan visa processing is a farce. Sri Lankan refugees can be settled in Australian but they won\u2019t be processed here.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut most of the Merak asylum seekers will end up in Australia, just as the asylum seekers dumped on Nauru by the Howard government eventually were brought to Australia.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sooner the Australian government faces up to its responsibility the sooner the uncertainty will end for those in Tanjung Pinang.\u201d<\/p>\n
For more information contact Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713 or Sara Nathan 0412 236 703<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Media Release, April 21 2010 Refugee advocates today confirmed that around 50 Tamil asylum seekers from the boat at Merak made it to Christmas Island over the past weeks and that initial processing of their asylum claims has begun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":311091,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-115","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-press-releases"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/311091"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}