Two Australian refugee activists detained and questioned by Indonesian \u2028police in Merak have been deported by Indonesian immigration authorities,\u2028will arrive in Australia on Saturday morning (30 January). \u2028\u2028Tamil community activist, Sara Nathan, will arrive at Sydney international\u2028 airport at 7.40am Saturday, 30 January.<\/p>\n
She will be available for media\u2028 comment on her arrival at the international airport. \u2028\u2028Their deportation follows claims that they violated the conditions of their \u2028visas by being in the restricted area around the boat of Tamil asylum \u2028seekers at Merak. Under conditions placed on the return of their passports \u2028they were not allowed to make comments to the media. They are also barred \u2028from returning to Indonesia for six months. \u2028\u2028Australian consular officials and Indonesian legal aid representatives\u2028 provided support at their interview with the Indonesian chief minister \u2028immigration on Thursday afternoon, Indonesian time. \u2028\u2028\u201cClaims by the immigration authorities that we entered the restricted area\u2028at the boat are completely untrue. We were in the public area beyond the\u2028boundary of the port.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe claims that I was associated with people smuggling are also completely\u2028 baseless. At first I was meant to be associated with \u201cNathan” the people \u2028smuggler (part of my maiden surname is Nathan but my married name is NOT\u2028Nathan), by distributing Australian humanitarian visa forms \u2013 something \u2028that was actually suggested by Australian DFAT. Later the claims changed to \u2028being in the restricted area around the boat.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were in Indonesia because of our concern for the welfare and the future \u2028of the asylum seekers on the boat at Merak. That remains our central\u2028 concern,\u201d said Sara Nathan, on her arrival at Sydney airport.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing detained and deported won\u2019t hide the injustice of leaving the people\u2028on the boat for three months without proper support. The deportation will\u2028not stop us campaigning against the Indonesian solution or for justice for\u2028the people at Merak. \u2028\u2028\u201cIf Kevin Rudd had not called on the Indonesian government to intercept the\u2028boat to Merak, none of this would have happened. The Australian government \u2028urgently needs to play a role in resolving the situation it created.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Indonesian government has placed a complete ban on access to the boat\u2028by welfare groups, NGOs and journalists. That ban should be lifted. We have\u2028 suggested a way forward for the immigration verification of the asylum\u2028seekers and processing by the UNHCR,\u201d Nathan said. \u2028\u2028\u201cSuch processing would pave the way for Australia to play a role in the\u2028re-settlement of those found to be refugees.<\/p>\n
There is an urgent need for\u2028 the Australian government to provide the assistance that Indonesia needs to\u2028guarantee the safety and future of the asylum seekers.\u2028\u2028\u201cNews that Sri Lankan opposition leader, Sarath Fonseka, himself accused of\u2028war crimes in his role as leader of the army, may ask Australia for asylum\u2028is testament to the dangers that any opponents of the Sri Lankan government\u2028face. Just like those fleeing the Taliban in Afghanistan, Tamils are\u2028fleeing human rights abuses in Sri Lanka.\u2028\u2028\u201cAustralia, as a signatory to the Refugee Convention, should live up to its \u2028obligations and welcome those fleeing persecution \u2013 including those at \u2028Merak.\u201d<\/p>\n
For further information and media comment contact Sara Nathan 0412 236 703 \u2028or Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two Australian refugee activists detained and questioned by Indonesian \u2028police in Merak have been deported by Indonesian immigration authorities,\u2028will arrive in Australia on Saturday morning (30 January). \u2028\u2028Tamil community activist, Sara Nathan, will arrive at Sydney international\u2028 airport at 7.40am Saturday, 30 January.<\/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-1925","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\/1925","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=1925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1925\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}