Yesterday at his press briefing, Immigration Minister, Scott Morrison, claimed that Australia had removed seven West Papuan asylum seekers to PNG last Friday on the basis of a 2003 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with PNG.<\/p>\n
But that MoU only allows Australia to remove asylum seekers if they have been in PNG for more than seven days prior to their arrival in Australia.<\/p>\n
The West Papuans repeatedly told Australian immigration officials that they had only been in PNG for two nights as they transited that country.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems that the West Papuans have been unlawfully removed from Australia. The Minister has effectively kidnapped and refouled the West Papuan asylum seekers. Scott Morrison has sent these asylum seekers to danger,\u201d said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.<\/p>\n
\u201cDesperate to avoid adding to the government\u2019s diplomatic difficulties with the Indonesian government before Tony Abbott\u2019s visit, Scott Morrison has trampled on the human rights of the West Papuans and dumped them in PNG. In the process, the Coalition government has become complicit in the repression of the West Papuans by the Indonesian military.\u201d<\/p>\n
The MoU also requires that PNG consider the asylum claims made by anyone returned under the MoU, but it remains unclear how the asylum claims are going to be assessed by PNG. There is no indication so far that the PNG government is actually going to assess their claims.<\/p>\n
In any case there are serious concerns that this can properly be done, especially when the West Papuans can make a case against the PNG government\u2019s inability to provide protection.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe West Papuans must be returned to Australia where their need for protection can be properly met,\u201d said Rintoul.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe treatment of the West Papuans also raises serious doubts about the PNG deal and its willingness to resettle and adequately protect any asylum seekers, inclusing those on Manus Island, found to be refugees in PNG.\u201d<\/p>\n
For more information contact Ian Rintoul, mob 0417 275 713<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yesterday at his press briefing, Immigration Minister, Scott Morrison, claimed that Australia had removed seven West Papuan asylum seekers to PNG last Friday on the basis of a 2003 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with PNG.<\/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-2894","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\/2894","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=2894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2894\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}