Sri Lankans threaten to blow up boat in Indonesia

No vacancy for boatpeople as Kevin Rudd toughens stance

KEVIN Rudd has been forced to expand the immigration detention centre at Christmas Island in a last-ditch attempt to avoid transferring asylum-seekers to the mainland.
And as officials began processing the 56 asylum-seekers intercepted on Monday - the 32nd boat to arrive this year - the Coalition renewed its attack on the government, accusing the Prime Minister of "losing control of our borders" and of replacing the Howard era Pacific Solution with an "Indonesian solution" of managing refugees.
But Mr Rudd moved to toughen the government's rhetoric following revelations he personally intervened through a conversation with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to have a boat carrying 260 asylum-seekers stopped by the Indonesian navy.
Last night, more than 260 Sri Lankan asylum-seekers were locked in a deadly stand-off with Indonesian authorities, threatening to blow up their boat if forced to disembark at the port in Merak.
"I make absolutely no apology whatsoever for taking a hard line on illegal immigration to Australia," Mr Rudd said yesterday.
He said the government was working with countries in the region to stem the flow of irregular migrants, and that the harsh policies adopted by the Howard government had failed.
Mr Rudd's comments followed the interception on Monday of 56 asylum-seekers northwest of Ashmore Reef, bringing to 1704 the number of asylum-seekers to arrive by boat this year.
But Malcolm Turnbull seized on the arrival of the new boats, claiming there was now no doubt Labor's changes had encouraged people smugglers.
"Mr Rudd has to now admit that his border protection policies are failing. He has lost control of our borders. Since he started softening our border protection policies, we've had 41 boats and just under 2000 arrivals," the Opposition Leader said.
Since coming to office, Labor has made several changes to immigration policy, dismantling the Pacific Solution of offshore processing and introducing a risk-based approach to mandatory detention.
The border protection debate raged as a Lowy Institute poll released yesterday showing 76 per cent of Australians were somewhat concerned or very concerned about unauthorised asylum-seekers.
It rated as the 10th-biggest critical threat to the vital interests of the country in the next 10 years.
News of the interceptions came as the Immigration Department confirmed it was "reconfiguring" its Christmas Island detention centre to accommodate up to 1400 detainees - an increase of 200 on its maximum "surge" capacity.
The expansion, which is being achieved by a "reconfiguration of the activities room" represents a near doubling of the facility's "normal" capacity of 800 people.
The spokesman said this would not mean activities would be cancelled. "They will continue to have access to a range of educational and recreational activities," he said.
Earlier in the day there were plans to move transportable buildings from the area known as "construction camp" to the main detention centre, but these were cancelled.
The move is a temporary reprieve for the government, which has been drawing up plans to move large numbers of asylum-seekers to the mainland.
The Australian understands the government was discussing plans to send asylum-seekers direct to Darwin or Learmonth air base, 1200km north of Perth, as recently as two weeks ago.
It is understood a proposal was presented to cabinet to allow asylum-seekers to be processed directly on the mainland, if the number of boat arrivals meant facilities on Christmas Island could not cope.
Another proposal was for asylum-seekers to be sent to Darwin or Learmonth after their initial processing on Christmas Island.
This would have allowed space to be created on the island for future arrivals.
Yesterday, Immigration Minister Chris Evans made clear the Darwin option remained on the table should favourable seasonal conditions push the number of boats beyond the coping capacity of Christmas Island.
"If additional accommodation is required beyond that, adult men who are nearing the end of their processing on Christmas Island may be transferred to the Northern Immigration Detention Centre for the final stages of processing," a spokesman for Senator Evans told The Australian. An Immigration Department spokesman said yesterday there were 1016 asylum-seekers and 19 crew on Christmas Island, 820 of whom were housed at the detention centre.
The facility has an operating capacity of 800 people and, under normal circumstances, a "surge" capacity of 1200.
The numbers at the facility do not include the 56 intercepted on Monday, which will push the facility well into its normal surge capacity of 1200.
Indonesia last night played down impressions Jakarta had acted at the behest of Kevin Rudd, who on the weekend phoned Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono requesting the boat be stopped.
Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said the boat, which would have overwhelmed Australia's offshore detention facility, had been stopped in the interest of regional co-operation.
"It's not like that," he said of the reports. "In the context of regional co-operation, we share information, we co-ordinate ... This was only one part of that co-ordination."
Speaking in Hobart where he was attending a community cabinet, the Prime Minister lashed out at former immigration minister Philip Ruddock, who on Monday said the government's policies had created a "pipeline" of 10,000 asylum-seekers travelling to Australia via people-smugglers every year.
Mr Rudd said Mr Ruddock had "zero credibility" on the issue.
"Phillip Ruddock was also that minister who said that asylum-seekers had thrown their kids overboard," he said.
"I therefore place zero credibility on anything that Phillip Ruddock says about anything since that time ... In one fell swoop, he destroyed his credibility to make comments on this issue."
Mr Rudd said in the two years after the Howard government introduced the system of temporary protection visas for refugees, the number of boat arrivals mushroomed to nearly 10,000.
"So I would say to those who want to bring back TPVs, who want to bring back the Pacific Solution, ask yourself this question - what is the record in the two years immediately following the introduction of these measures?" Mr Rudd said.
But writing in The Australian today, Mr Ruddock said only domestic measures had proved effective in stemming the flow. "These included the return to Indonesia of a number of vessels ..., the implementation of the so-called Pacific Solution with the co-operation of Nauru and Papua New Guinea and humane mandatory detention for those who reached Australia," he said.
Opposition spokeswoman Sharman Stone said Kevin Rudd had replaced the Pacific Solution with the "Indonesia solution".
"While Mr Rudd was successful in his panicked phone call to SBY, he has not addressed the problem," Dr Stone told The Australian.
Yesterday, outspoken Christian minister Fred Nile told The Australian he was exploring the possibility of extricating by boat about 1900 Assyrian Christian refugees in Iraq, who have been trying for years to come to Australia.
"I thought what would happen if they were somehow able to all put together their money and hire a boat and just sail to Christmas Island," Mr Nile told The Australian.
"Would the government welcome them with open arms as they are with all these boatpeople that are coming at the moment?" Mr Nile said he was now actively considering the idea.

Sri Lankans threaten to blow up boat in Indonesia

Stephen Fitzpatrick, Merak, Indonesia October 14, 2009 Article from: The Australian

MORE than 260 Sri Lankan asylum-seekers were last night threatening to blow up their boat if the Indonesian navy forced them to disembark at the port in Merak after the large cargo boat they were piloting towards Christmas Island broke down.
"We have gas canisters and we have told the navy we will blow up the boat and jump into the ocean if they try to force us off the boat," said a spokesman for the asylum-seekers, who would only give his name as Alex.
Alex said the Sri Lankans had each paid $US15,000 ($16,533) to board the wooden craft in Malaysia 13 days ago, after travelling there by air from Jaffna.
"If the authorities in Sri Lanka know this is me on this boat, they will hunt down my wife and children in Jaffna and kill them," the frightened man said. "I have been waiting for my wife and children to follow me here. As soon as possible, we need to get to Australia."
The Sri Lankan asylum-seekers and six Indonesian crew members were under military guard aboard the cargo ship in western Java after being intercepted trying to sail to Christmas Island.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono intervened directly in the case of the asylum-seekers, who were detained trying to sail to Christmas Island at the weekend.
Dr Yudhoyono has ordered his navy chief of staff to treat with care the group of hungry and tired refugees, who last night were expected to be towed to shore after their cargo boat's engine died. They were then to be dealt with by immigration officials after having refused for the past three days to leave their stricken boat.
Kevin Rudd confirmed yesterday he had made a personal plea to Dr Yudhoyono for the Indonesians to intercept the boat.
Alex denied last night that those on board the boat were associated with Tamil Tigers.
"We are civilians, not Tamil Tigers. Every day there are Tamils being killed and raped in the refugee camps. Men are blindfolded and shot in the back of the head.
"In Sri Lanka if you are Tamil there is no opportunity - the government can detain you without cause, and take you to trial without evidence."
Alex said the group's choice of Australia as a destination was not based on intimate knowledge of federal government immigration policy, but simply "because we had to flee somewhere".
"Another boat full of Tamils left Malaysia for Canada, and for that people were paying $US45,000 per person," he said. "That was far too expensive."
He said the group had been at sea for 13 days before being captured by an Indonesian navy vessel early on Saturday morning. "We spent a month in the jungle in Malaysia before that," he said.
International Organisation for Migration staff were working with Immigration Department officials last night to resolve the standoff, with the Sri Lankans adamant they wanted to continue their journey to Australia. Alex refused to give details of the agent who had taken money from members for the group in Malaysia, repeatedly saying he feared for his life.
He was allowed to speak to The Australian for only a few moments, before senior navy officers made him rejoin the larger group.
The group consisted of women and children as well as men, and a number of extremely young children.
Four of the boatpeople were in hospital last night being treated for non life-threatening issues, including one woman who reportedly was pregnant.
A military source, who refused to be named, said navy ships guarding the asylum-seekers had accompanied the boat after it was intercepted in the Sunda Strait near Anak Krakatau, an active volcano that attracts thousands of tourists to its spectacular displays.
"We're guarding them so that no one can get on or off, and so they don't escape," the source said. The boat was moored alongside an Indonesian submarine chaser and bore a large hand-painted sign saying: "We are Sri Lankan civilians plz save our life."
Australian Federal Police and Immigration Department officers had already visited the boat people, the source said. However they were refusing to speak to officials.
A doctor dealing with the four people in hospital said they included a baby with skin problems, a woman who is seven months pregnant, another with gastritis and a fourth who had a spinal injury sustained on the cargo boat.
Others had been given medical assessments on the boat and determined to be fine.
Erwin Hilianka, from the Banten province health department, said the illegal immigrants were suffering no serious illnesses but were only sick due to weakness and not eating.
The boat was intercepted early on Sunday morning, authorities said, and arrived in Merak harbour late the same day.
Indonesian police said they were investigating whether the six Indonesian crew members were involved in a known people-smuggling ring.
Thousands of asylum-seekers from Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Sri Lanka and Burma use Indonesia as a staging point to get to Australia where they apply for refugee status, often travelling first through Malaysia.
Many make their initial applications to the UN High Commission for Refugees in Jakarta, giving them temporary right to stay in the country while their claims are processed.
A large number of them then use this opportunity to organise risky voyages such as the most recent one to be intercepted, often with the services of organised people-smuggling rings.
Australia has launched a joint policing program with Indonesia to combat the people trafficking wave, with at least a dozen ports across the country being targeted.
Despite tough language from Jakarta for Australia's benefit, officials admit they are unable to stem the flow of refugees through the country. Many of the asylum-seekers themselves admit the flow has increased
as a result of the Rudd government's softer measures on the problem.
These measures, which many asylum-seekers believe will give them a greater chance at being accepted as refugees by Australia if they try the journey by boat, have led to the main detention and processing centre at Christmas Island being filled beyond its capacity.
However Indonesian detention centres are also stretched beyond capacity, despite financial and other assistance from foreign governments including Australia and from the International Organisation for Migration.
The IOM works with the UNHCR giving shelter, food and medical treatment to thousands of asylum-seekers living in the community in areas such as Puncak, a mountainous resort region full of low-rent hostels south of Jakarta.
Hundreds more are in immigration detention centres across the country, with the latest boatload almost certain to join that category unless any of them can produce documentation showing they had refugee applications already being assessed by the UN.
Asylum-seekers who are successful in such applications while living in Indonesia then have the right to be considered for resettlement in a third country that has signed the international treaty dealing with refugees.
Chief among these countries are Australia, the US and Canada. Indonesia has never signed the treaty and, despite promises by Dr Yudhoyono during a visit by Mr Rudd last year, has not enacted anti-people smuggling legislation.

BBC Sinhala service
Lankan migrants in Indonesia 'very ill'

The Sri Lankan migrants captured off Indonesian waters are in very poor conditions and still feeling tired due to the long journey in the sea, Indonesian authorities say.
Head of information department of Indonesian Navy, First Admiral Iskandar Sitompul told BBC Sinhala service that many Tamil nationals were among the captured migrants who have been “floating in the sea” for many days.
30 women and 30 children are among the 260 migrants in a cargo ship intercepted by the Indonesian authorities on Sunday, he added.
The migrants, suspected of trying to sail illegally to Australia, were captured on Sunday by the Indonesian authorities.Via Malaysia
First Admiral Iskandar Sitompul added that the migrants are still being questioned “one by one” in the sea off Merak harbour by navy officials.
The migrants might be allowed into Indonesia, “hopefully tomorrow” after the interrogations, he added, and will be detained in migration centres.
The migrants had set sail from Malaysia and paid nearly 15,000 US dollars per person to a people smuggler, he told BBC Indonesian service.
“First they went to Singapore then Malaysia, but not all together. They started the journey in July and at the end a total of 260 people met up in Malaysia,” First Admiral Sitompul said.
'Broken bones'
He added that the migrants had had food when they left Malaysia, but now the food is finished, and when found, some of them were malnourished.
Most of them have skin problems because of the condition on the boat. Some have broken bones and four of them were admitted to the hospital.
A spokesman at the Sri Lankan embassy in Indonesia told BBC Sandeshaya that they were not informed of the incident.
Hundreds of thousands of Tamil nationals have left Sri Lanka as a result of the conflict between the Sri Lanka military and Tamil Tigers.
Although the military conflict has ended in May, many Tamil nationals are still trying to migrate, usually by illegal means, to the West and other countries.
In an apparent attempt to turn the tide, Australia recently deported six Sri Lankan illegal migrants.
The Sri Lankan high commissioner in Australia has told the media that all of the deported were Sinhala nationals and there was no threat to their life in Sri Lanka.