{"id":4117,"date":"2015-06-17T10:25:05","date_gmt":"2015-06-17T00:25:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/?p=4117"},"modified":"2015-06-17T10:25:05","modified_gmt":"2015-06-17T00:25:05","slug":"wads-of-cash-turning-asylum-boats-around-thats-the-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/?p=4117","title":{"rendered":"Wads of cash? Turning asylum boats around \u2013 that\u2019s the crime"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is now quite clear that the Coalition government, the architects of Operation Sovereign Borders, did pay the boat crew of a recent asylum boat to take asylum seekers back to Indonesia. The crew says it, the asylum seekers say it, the Indonesian police say it and the long list of government denials says all the public needs to know about who is telling the truth.<\/p>\n

\"Boats<\/a>In this case, as in every other turn-around, the government is guilty of crimes on the high seas; trafficking defenceless people who were attempting to get to safety in New Zealand and returning them to danger.<\/p>\n

The incident has also exposed the lie that the Coalition has stopped the boats. Almost two years since the start of Operation Sovereign Borders, asylum boats are still coming. The turn around also revealed that for all the supposed sophistication and military power of Operation Sovereign Borders, it is underpinned by wads of cash.<\/p>\n

The media and political furore has focussed on the government\u2019s denials and the payment of money to the boat crew \u2013 but the real crime is that the government has prevented another boat of asylum seekers gaining the protection and security they need.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe furore has revealed much hypocrisy \u2013 the Coalition\u2019s complete lack of scruples, and its willingness to use bribes, but also from Labor,\u201d said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.<\/p>\n

\u201cLabor politicians have tried to make political mileage by using the same rhetoric about \u2018people smuggling\u2019 as the Coalition. Rather than demonise boat crews, that provide an indispensable service for asylum seekers, Labor should be attacking the Coalition\u2019s turn-around policy and its ban on accepting refugees from Indonesia.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbbott says that the Coalition uses turn-arounds, when it is \u2018safe to do so\u2019. But there is nothing safe about turn-arounds. These boats foundered on a reef off Landuti Island.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy choosing not to use the very obvious orange lifeboats to return asylum seekers to Indonesia, the government had to resort to paying the crew to try to make sure that the boats would head to Indonesia and not attempt to continue to travel to Australia, or New Zealand, as they originally intended. The government has been caught out by it\u2019s own \u2018cleverness\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe support the Indonesian government fully investigating the incident,\u201d said Rintoul, \u201cThe Australian government\u2019s cover-up attempt deserves to be exposed. It shamefully continues to use Indonesia as a dumping ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has tens of thousands of dollars, indeed millions, to arrange turn-backs but has not given a cent to Indonesia to assist with the thousands of Rohingya asylum seekers who recently found safety in Aceh.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe turn-around policy is just an invitation for asylum seekers to die elsewhere. The real crime of the Abbott government is that it continues to violate human rights and international law by turning asylum boats back to Indonesia.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information contact Ian Rintoul +61 417 275 713<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is now quite clear that the Coalition government, the architects of Operation Sovereign Borders, did pay the boat crew of a recent asylum boat to take asylum seekers back to Indonesia. The crew says it, the asylum seekers say it, the Indonesian police say it and the long list of government denials says all […]<\/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-4117","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\/4117","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=4117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4117\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}