11 July 2009
\nMedia Release
\nIn the aftermath of the rescue of a 74 asylum seekers\u2019 boat yesterday, the refugee advocate who alerted Australian border protection authorities to the distressed boat has called on the Rudd government to end the crack down on asylum seekers and people smugglers in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
\u201cPushing Indonesian and Malaysian governments to detain and arrest asylum seekers and people smugglers is putting refugees\u2019 lives in danger,\u201d Ian Rintoul said.<\/p>\n
Ian Rintoul, of the Refugee Action Coalition, received a message from Pakistan early Wednesday morning that there was a boat was in distress. After finally making contact with the boat, he alerted Border Protection Command who contacted Indonesian rescue authorities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last message I received from the boat said \u2018My mobile has no power now. I can\u2019t contact you any more. May God help us,\u2019\u201d said Rintoul. The boat was eventually found and the 74 people on board are now reported to be safe near Komodo Island.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was an extremely worrying time. In my first contact with the boat, I could hear the water lapping in the background. The asylum seekers were extremely anxious and had been without engine power for almost twelve hours. But they were also very worried about being picked up by Indonesian police. They asked me not to send Indonesian police,\u201d Rintoul said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government crack down now means that asylum seekers are now fearful of Indonesian police. They are fleeing persecution by Indonesian police, encouraged by the Australian government as well as the persecution they faced in Sri Lanka or Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government should begin to process in Indonesia and Malaysia. There would be no need for dangerous boat rides, if the Australian government would undertake processing in Indonesia. That is the humanitarian thing to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe vast majority of the asylum seekers coming here are genuine refugees. The government recognizes that asylum seekers are being pushed by the instability in Sri Lanka and Pakistan but they are putting obstacles in the way of people who need protection.<\/p>\n
\u201cAsylum seekers have become fearful that they will ever get protection. The Australian government policy is making it more likely that people will use unsafe and ill-equipped boats to get to Australia.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank goodness, the boat yesterday was saved, but the policies of the Australian government will mean that more people will be put in danger. Already there have been reports that two or three boats have sunk trying to reach Australia. If the government was really concerned about the safety of asylum seeker they would be processing people in Indonesia \u2013 not forcing to use people smugglers.\u201d<\/p>\n
For more information, contact Ian Rintoul mobile 0417 275 713.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
11 July 2009 Media Release<\/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-12","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\/12","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=12"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}