Kids destined for detention: Jakarta

SENIOR Indonesian officials have rejected outright a claim by Kevin Rudd that women and children asylum-seekers aboard the Oceanic Viking could be accommodated in regular housing, rather than behind razor wire in an Australian-funded detention centre.

"We've already got a detention centre (at Tanjung Pinang) and in it we already separate men and women," the Foreign Ministry's most senior official for international security, Sujatmiko, told The Australian.

"Indonesia does not need to be directed how to act. We've gotten the detention centre ready and we've already helped Australia for humanitarian reasons.

"There is commitment from both sides, and Indonesia has the commitment, but Indonesia is not your country."

A spokesman for Mr Rudd said last night that the Prime Minister stood by his earlier comments.

On Wednesday, Mr Rudd told parliament: "The Indonesian authorities have advised the government that women and children will be offe

red the option of staying in a house near the Tanjung Pinang detention facility.

women and children will be offered the option of staying in a house near the Tanjung Pinang detention facility."

The Prime Minister's office did not respond to Dr Sujatmiko's comment last night.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's most senior adviser on international affairs, Dino Patti Djalal, also refused to confirm claims made by Mr Rudd in parliament that the women and children among the 78 Sri Lankans would be housed separately.

After a brief silence in response to the question yesterday, Mr Djalal said simply: "I couldn't comment on that. We're waiting for Australian officials to go on board later today and convince them to come off, because that's all they can do.

"They're on Australian territory so we can't do anything about it. We just hope Australia can get them off the boat."

Mr Rudd's "Indonesia solution" is facing growing opposition from Jakarta, with senior Indonesian officials saying they will not allow their country to become a processing site for Australia-bound boatpeople.

As officials continued to negotiate an end to the standoff with the 78 Sri Lankans aboard the Oceanic Viking, now in its 12th day, there were fresh signs the impasse was taking its toll on relations between Australia and Indonesia.

Yesterday, Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said talk of an "Indonesia solution" to intercept the boats had become a sore in Indonesia.

"We don't want to be caught in the domestic issues in Australia," Mr Faizasyah told The Australian.

"We don't want to be the object of insults from your dynamic, political dynamic, in your country."

Mr Faizasyah said Indonesia has a "bigger picture" when it came to bilateral relations.

"This will certainly irritate Indonesia to be associated with a new form of policy which in your country itself is still being debated," he said.

Asked if it was likely Jakarta would agree to intercept and process more boats, Mr Faizasyah replied: "I don't think so. We are not a country to process refugees because more importantly we are not parties to the refugee convention, so what we are doing (is) only based on our humanitarian perspective."

But Dr Sujatmiko said Indonesian officials had responded promptly to Australian requests to supply food, water and other necessities to the Oceanic Viking, and in facilitating visa arrangements for an expected crew change aboard the vessel.

"We have helped with everything (possible) but we are not going to force (the asylum-seekers) to come off the boat," he said.

Indonesian officials also revealed privately they were furious at the inactivity from Sri Lanka through the crisis, and were talking privately about making Colombo directly responsible for repatriating the next boat load of Tamils they intercept. Strategists in Jakarta believe this would send "one of the strongest signals ... if next time one of these boats is picked up, it just gets sent straight back to Sri Lanka".

Mr Djalal suggested that the move "should give some discouragement to them (asylum-seekers), after making all that effort to get here".

Late yesterday afternoon the Sri Lankan ambassador to Indonesia agreed to visit the 78 Tamils on board the Oceanic Viking and make an offer of repatriation.

"If even half or a quarter of them could be repatriated, that would be a great thing," Mr Djalal said.

Security on the Oceanic Viking was ramped up yesterday, with the Sri Lankans herded behind fluorescent tape and kept under guard by armed Customs officials.

The Customs officers confirmed they had been directed to prevent any communication between journalists and the Sri Lankans.

Fellow Tamil refugee "Alex", on board the Jaya Lestari 5, a wooden cargo boat moored with 251 asylum-seekers at the port of Merak in western Java, said he could confirm that those on board the Oceanic Viking had had "at least one telephone communication with the outside world".

"However, I can tell you that contact is waiting for a follow-up call, so whether it came from one person on board who had a phone but no longer does, I couldn't say."

The Sri Lankans appeared relaxed yesterday, washing on the top deck where they were being guarded early in the morning and then retreating under tarpaulins and below deck when a violent thunderstorm struck in the middle of the day.

THE AUSTRALIAN

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Australia could use force against asylum seekers

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has not ruled out the use of force by Australian officials against a group of asylum seekers who are refusing to leave a Customs ship, saying the Government is dealing with a "complex and difficult situation".

As the 78 asylum seekers spend their 10th day on board the Oceanic Viking off the coast of Indonesia, Mr Rudd has faced a barrage of questions in Parliament from the Opposition over the stand-off.

Despite a deal made by Mr Rudd and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for Indonesia to take the group last week they are yet to leave the ship and local officials are resisting efforts to bring them ashore.

With the issue dominating Question Time this week, Mr Rudd was repeatedly asked by the Opposition to detail his involvement in continuing developments but Mr Rudd would not elaborate on any discussions which he said were of a "diplomatic nature".

When asked whether Australian officials could use force against the asylum seekers, Mr Rudd replied: "We are dealing with a complex and difficult and challenging set of circumstances."

"I have confidence that our men and women who are working in these professional agencies will discharge their professional responsibilities with the greatest degree of skill and tact and humanity that they can, but this is a very difficult situation," he added.

The asylum seekers are due to be taken to a detention centre on the island of Bintan, but Mr Rudd says Indonesian authorities will not insist on locking up the women and children of the group.

"I'm advised by the Indonesian authorities that women and children will be offered the option of staying in a house near the Tanjun Pinang detention facility," he said.

The Opposition insists the Government's change in border protection policy is responsible for a recent surge in boat arrivals and Leader Malcolm Turnbull says the Government has "outsourced" the country's refugee program to people smugglers.

"Not one question about the Oceanic Viking has been answered other than with a contemptuous, savage and sneering attack on the Opposition," he said.

"The truth is that this debacle is a disaster entirely of the Government's own making."

Mr Rudd also also faced criticism from within his own ranks with Australian Workers Union boss Paul Howes saying the asylum seekers should be brought to Christmas Island.

"These are 78 people - can anyone really run any serious argument that this poses any threat to us whatsoever?" Mr Howes asked.

"The Prime Minister ... has the opportunity to show leadership and actually inject some common sense and get a bit of the heat and rhetoric out of this debate."

O.P.C. by: Emma Rodgers

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Australia will meet legal obligations to asylum-seekers: Gillard

JULIA Gillard has told Parliament Australia will follow the letter of the law on where 78 asylum-seekers intercepted in Indonesian waters will be sent.

Asked in question time why the asylum-seekers remain in limbo after being picked up by the Australian Navy in Indonesian waters, the acting Prime Minister said consultations were continuing.

Ms Gillard, who earlier pledged the government would get the balance right beween a hardline border control policy and showing compassion to refugees, confirmed one female passenger was suffering from fever and was being monitored.

“We will act in a way entirely consistent with out legal obligations,” she said.

“We will follow the letter of the law.”

Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull questioned her claims that a rise in asylum-seekers was sparked by push factors not a softening of policy.

“Why is the government trying to trick the Australian people with spin,” he asked.

Mr Turnbull said the government had rolled out the red carpet to people-smugglers.

The government is also under pressure today to explain whether a warning the government's policies would lead to a rise in people-smuggling was “excised” from a report prepared by Australian Federal Police.

The AFP refused to be drawn on the issue yesterday in Senate estimates on the grounds it was classified.

Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor also refused to comment, but accused the opposition of verballing the AFP on the issue today in question time.

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The Australian

Australia 'must do something' to stop flow of asylum seekers

Sunday 18th October 2009

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd needs to stem the flow of asylum seekers instead of relying on Indonesia to do the heavy lifting, the federal opposition says.

"The flow (of asylum seekers) is back on full strength and it is a deadly business," opposition immigration spokeswoman Sharman Stone told ABC Television today.

"And that is why we are saying: 'Look, Prime Minister Rudd, look you do something right now other than just calling in Indonesia to do your heavy lifting'."

Dr Stone said the number of asylum seekers had increased from about three boats in 2002/03 to 41 boats since the Labor government "softened" its policy last year.

If the opposition had been in power, the problem wouldn't exist, she said.

"We wouldn't have the problem in the first position, because we had zero boat problems, effectively, when we were in government," she said.

"If Prime Minister Rudd refused to deal with the problem he has created, and we got to our change of government with us in power, you would stand by and see us with a strategic package bringing all of this to a crunch very, very quickly."

The debate was heightened yesterday after two boats, possibly loaded with asylum seekers believed to be heading to Australia, issued distress signals in Malaysian and Indonesian waters.

The Australian navy is on standby to help in the rescue operation led by search and rescue authorities from Malaysia and Indonesia.

Climate Change Minister Penny Wong today said that HMAS Armidale had made contact with one of the boats and everyone on board was believed to be safe.

She defended the government's "tough but humane and fair" approach, saying the situation was a difficult one.

"We have allocated substantial resources in the last budget to border protection," she told Network Ten.

"Obviously, the situation around the world has meant many push factors are increasing the number of people seeking to go elsewhere and this is the situation the government is seeking to manage."

The situation unfolds as a group of Sri Lankan asylum seekers in Indonesia ended a hunger strike.

Their boat, carrying more than 250 ethnic Tamils, was intercepted last weekend by the Indonesian navy en route to Australia and taken to the Javanese city of Merak.

The passengers had refused to leave the boat during the past week, while making emotional pleas for Australia to take them in.

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Brisbane Times 2009

Navy intercepts boat with 65 asylum seekers

Another boat carrying asylum seekers has been intercepted off the north-west Australian coast.

The boat, carrying 65 people and three crew, was located three nautical miles north-west of Ashmore Island at 7pm (local time) yesterday by navy boat HMAS Maitland.

It is the third boat intercepted in the past week.

A boat carrying 83 passengers and four crew was found 150 kilometres south of Ashmore Island on Friday night.

On Monday, a boat carrying seven people was intercepted.

All have been taken to Christmas Island.

Asylum-seeker says Australian Federal Police "left us adrift"

AN Afghan asylum-seeker arrested after several days lost at sea claims Australian Federal Police told him a helicopter and boats would be sent to rescue him and up to 85 others.

Ali Yewar, 28, a passenger on an asylum-seeker vessel that was bound for Australia and feared lost in Indonesian waters, told The Australian yesterday he called the AFP and gave readings from an onboard GPS device to pinpoint the location of the group's boat as it foundered off the eastern Indonesian island of Flores.

Mr Yewar, also known as Juma Khan, said no help had arrived.

"For four nights we drifted but no one came to help us as they promised," he said. "I spoke to Australians, to Indonesians, but no one came. Our boat was being pushed around in the heavy wind, our engine was seized and the boat was full of water."

Mr Yewar was aboard an asylum-seeker vessel that has perplexed and confused Australian and Indonesian authorities since it was first reported missing.

It was initially thought lost at sea last Tuesday, then prematurely reported as found by Foreign Minister Stephen Smith late on Wednesday. Over the weekend, some of the boat's Afghan passengers were arrested by Indonesian authorities on Sumbawa island and an empty boat was found near the island town of Bima.

Mr Smith said yesterday the passengers were safe but not all accounted for. "Our most recent advice from Indonesian officials is that the vessel has been located and the passengers dispersed," he said.

"Embassy officials, AFP officers in our office in Jakarta, have spoken to two of the passengers who were on board and the telephone advice from the passengers to the AFP officers is that all of the passengers on board are safe - that's the most recent advice I have.

"They've dispersed, so not all passengers are accounted for, but the advice that we have from two passengers is that all the passengers were safe prior to their dispersal."

However, Mr Yewar said he feared his cousin was among a group of asylum-seekers from the boat who may have drowned.

Mr Smith's announcement came as another suspected asylum-seeker vessel arrived at Christmas Island. The wooden boat, with its cargo of 73 passengers and crew, was the 17th vessel to arrive this year. More than 900 undocumented migrants and 35 crew have been intercepted in Australian waters this year.

The ship was intercepted 80 nautical miles off Christmas Island by the Royal Australian Navy patrol boat Armidale.

The passengers were yesterday being processed for identity, health and security checks before joining hundreds of others on the island's immigration detention centre, which is close to capacity.

Authorities have not said where the suspected asylum-seekers had travelled from.

Mr Yewar, who was yesterday being held on Sumbawa, said that after the boat he was travelling in started drifting, he raised the alarm. This included, he said, calling Jakarta-based AFP officers, who alerted their Indonesian counterparts to the group's plight.

Mr Yewar had also sent an SOS text message to contacts in Pakistan, who relayed it to Australian refugee advocate Ian Rintoul. Mr Rintoul called Australian authorities to ensure they knew of the group's predicament.

"The Australian police asked me if the boat had a GPS," Mr Yewar said. "I didn't know what a GPS was, but I asked the captain and he said, 'it's this'. I told the police the reading on it."

The Indonesian authorities were given those co-ordinates by the AFP in an SMS that was subsequently distributed widely through various agencies, but they were unable to locate the boat.

An AFP spokesman refused to confirm whether it had received a call from anyone on the boat. Nor would it confirm or deny whether any of its officers spoke to people on the boat. The spokesman also refused to detail whether information was passed on to the Indonesian police.

Mr Yewar said the crew eventually dropped the asylum-seekers on an unknown island and left.

He admitted the group's intention had been to sail to Australia where members would seek asylum, "because of course I like Australia and I want to be in Australia, and I promise that, whether it is illegally or legally, I will keep trying to do that".

Mr Yewar, who is from Kabul, refused to say where the boat's voyage had begun or to give any details of the people-smuggling agents he had used to make the journey.

At least 29 of the original members of that group are now in detention on Sumbawa, an island to the east of Bali and a common staging point for boat journeys to Australia.

Mr Yewar said he was worried that up to 30 more of the group had gone missing.

He said he had no idea whether that was because they had gone overboard while the boat was battling heavy seas off Flores where it first ran into trouble, or whether it was because they had disappeared after being dropped on the unnamed island.

Indonesian police said local fishermen had transported the asylum-seekers to the town of Bima, on Sumbawa, where they were eventually arrested.

Some were seized at a bus terminal, apparently preparing to head west back to Jakarta through a series of island-hopping connections. Others, including Mr Yewar, were found in a local village.

Mr Yewar said he had applied in Jakarta three months ago for refugee status through the UN High Commissioner for Refugees - an increasingly common way for people fleeing war and persecution in Afghanistan, Iraq, Sri Lanka and elsewhere to speed up their formal resettlement in countries such as Australia.

Many refugees use the resultant informal Indonesian visa to arrange the dangerous journey by sea to Australia, where they hope their resettlement attempts will be dealt with even faster.

Responding to the arrival of the lastest asylum-seeker vessel at Christmas Island, the Rudd government said the upsurge in asylum-seeker arrivals was part of a global phenomenon linked to instability and war in countries such as Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan and more recently Sri Lanka.

"The boat was detected before it reached the contigious zone and our migration zone and was kept under constant surveillance," Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor said in a statement on the weekend.

"This demonstrates that our system of border protection is strong and effective.

"The group will be transferred to Christmas Island where they will undergo security, identity and health checks to establish their identity and reasons for travel."

The latest boatload of arrivals brings the total number of people detained on Christmas Island to 725.

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Afghan asylum-seekers 'rescued' off Indonesia after AFP tip-off

WAST: Thursday 09/07/2009 @ 13:50

UP to 74 Afghan asylum-seekers have been found safe after fears their fishing boat had sunk in dangerous Indonesian waters, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said last night.

A search had been launched for the boat following a tip-off from Australian Federal Police.

The boat, which was reported to be foundering off Komodo island in the country's east, had been under surveillance by Australian police based in Jakarta.

Local authorities at Labuhanbajo, on Flores island, were alerted to the boat's plight late on Tuesday by a text message from Australian police.

The boat's Indonesian crew and the asylum-seekers, who included women and children, were near land but the vessel was sinking fast and none of them could swim, the message said.

The text message, a copy of which has been obtained by The Australian, said the boat was "within sight of land but sinking no lifejackets" and that "local police have been notified appro 72-74 on board including woman and children please notify your counterparts urgently". The head of Labuhanbajo port, Pariman, said an all-day search was launched before first light yesterday as a result of the tip-off but no sign of the boat was found.

Mr Smith said last night the boat had been found.

"Indonesian officials have advised Australian officials in Indonesia that the boat has been located. It hasn't sunk," he told ABC TV's Lateline program.

"All on board ... are, on our advice, are safe."

However, there was confusion over the fate of the boat late last night, with Indonesian military officials on Flores saying:"We've found nothing. We are the navy here and we've found nothing."

Australia and Indonesia have recently increased co-operation in fighting people-smuggling, amid a fresh wave of asylum-seeker vessels.

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14th Asylum seekers boat intercepted

Caption:

The 14th Boat since Kevin Rudd to Office.

CANBERRA - AN AUSTRALIAN official says border patrols have intercepted a boat carrying 49 apparent asylum seekers off the country's northern coast.

The small boat, with four crew members, was the 14th such vessel to be detained in Australian waters this year.

Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor says the passengers will be taken to Christmas Island, an Indian Ocean territory where the government detains and processes refugee applicants.

O'Connor said in a statement Tuesday that the passengers will undergo health, security, identity and other checks.

Their nationalities were not immediately known.

Most of the recent asylum seekers have come from Afghanistan, Iran or Sri Lanka. -- AP

Police 'cautiously' release names of asylum-seekers

THE names of five Afghan asylum-seekers who died in a boat explosion off the coast of Australia have been released by Northern Territory police.

Acting Commander Peter Bravos said the "unusual step" had been taken because there had been problems establishing their identities and police still had questions about the accuracy of the names.

"It has been decided to take the unusual step of releasing the names of those believed to be the deceased in the hope that others may have information which will further assist us with this process," Comm Bravos said.

Awaz Nader, 50, Baquer Husani, 26, Mohammed Amen Zamen, 38, Mohammed Hasan Ayobi, 45, Muzafar Ali Safarali, 45, are among the names NT police have "cautiously" made public.

Three bodies were found at the blast scene while two bodies went missing in the surrounding water.

It is not known which names correspond to the recovered bodies.

Comm Bravos said the formal identification of the five men was continuing.

"A number of difficulties are delaying the process," he said.

"We believe all five of the deceased are Afghan nationals and the current war status in Afghanistan is further hindering our efforts."

It's still unclear what caused the blast, which also injured more than 40 people near Ashmore Reef on April 16.

The vessel, carrying 47 Afghan asylum-seekers and two crew, had been intercepted the previous day and was waiting to be escorted to Christmas Island when the incident occurred.

NT police - conducting an investigation into the incident for the NT coroner - is yet to reveal whether the blast was an accident or the result of sabotage.

But Comm Bravos said more than 130 statements had now been taken, including 44 interviews.

A second round of interviews started last week.

A separate investigation is being carried out by the Australian Federal Police into people-smuggling.

NT police can be contacted by anyone with information on (08) 8922 1505.

Afghan who tried to return but ended up in dire straits

BOARDING the ill-fated boat of asylum seekers in Indonesia last week, Ali Talash must have had a strange sense of deja vu.

Now lying injured in the Royal Perth Hospital, it was Mr Talash's second trip to Australia on an Indonesian boat.

In 1999, as the Taliban's control of Afghanistan tightened and the persecution of his Hazara community increased, Mr Talash said goodbye to his wife and children. He was taken by people smugglers through Pakistan and Iran, then flown to Malaysia and on to Indonesia, where he boarded a boat.

That boat was intercepted and he spent about a year in immigration detention before being granted a temporary protection visa. He moved to Auburn, in Sydney's south-west, and spent the next four years working as a tiler.

But as the war in Afghanistan progressed he became hopeful his country may have stabilised.

Mr Talash, who is in his 40s, was depressed and missing his wife and children, whom he could not see because the conditions of his visa meant he was not allowed to leave Australia.

So in 2003 he decided to go back to Afghanistan.

Mr Talash called a friend in Perth, Salman Rahmani, and told him of his decision.

"I said, 'If you go maybe you will (get) killed' — but he said, 'It's been so long, I must see my family'," Mr Rahmani said.

"He said he couldn't sleep in the night, he was very worried about his children and after he went back to Afghanistan it was very bad.

"It's sad, because Ali Talash missed (his chance to get) a permanent visa. Everybody else, me, our friends, we got permanent visas and became citizens, but he went home. By now he would have been a citizen, it's very sad."

But when Mr Talash returned to Afghanistan he found it still a violent, chaotic place and decided to try to get his family to Australia.

Increasingly frustrated by the lack of help from Australian embassies in Afghanistan and Pakistan, earlier this year he decided to make a perilous return journey.

The boat carrying him and 48 other asylum seekers was intercepted by the Australian Navy, and before they reached the safety of Christmas Island, there was an explosion on board, knocking many of them into the water.

Mr Rahmani's son Jarajo Zirak, 20, has been going to Royal Perth Hospital every day since Friday, trying to get information about Mr Talash's condition.

Mr Talash's wife called Mr Zirak on Friday, scared her husband had died. So far, Mr Zirak has been able to tell only that Mr Talash is alive, with officials unwilling to give details.

"She called me and was crying and was worried," Mr Zirak said. "She called me last night and I said there was no news yet. For the first few days she called me every two hours."

Indonesia stops nearly 900 asylum seekers: AFP

Australian Federal Police (AFP) commissioner Mick Keelty says authorities in Indonesia have stopped nearly 900 suspected asylum seekers from travelling to Australia since September last year.

Thirteen boatloads of asylum seekers have arrived in Australia in the past five months.

The Navy intercepted the latest boatload near Ashmore Island off the north-west coast of Australia on Sunday.

"Since September 2008, in Indonesia, there have been 40 identified disruptions comprising of 887 foreign nationals suspected of being in transit or have entered Indonesia for the purpose of travelling to Australia illegally," Commissioner Keelty said.

Police yet to reveal cause of fatal boat blast

Five people were killed in the April 16 explosion near Ashmore Reef. (File photo) (Department of Defence)

Northern Territory Police are still to determine whether a fatal boat explosion near Ashmore Reef last month was a result of sabotage or an accident.

They have interviewed 41 asylum seekers who were on the boat, known as the SIEV 36.

Five people were killed in the April 16 explosion.

Of the 44 people rescued, three remain in a stable condition at the burns units of the Royal Perth and Royal Brisbane hospitals.

Earlier this month, government sources told the ABC fuel was deliberately poured on the boat deck as a threat, after the Navy intercepted the vessel.

It is alleged those on board feared they would be turned back to Indonesia.

However, the head of the Afghan community in Western Australia says some of the survivors now in immigration detention say it was an accident.

The Immigration Department is still to interview the survivors.

The asylum seekers are believed to be from Afghanistan, but the department cannot formally identify them until their interviews are finished.

Immigration says its focus remains on providing support and welfare to the group.

Turnbull wants to visit injured asylum seekers

[Caption: Medical staff at Royal Darwin Hospital treat one of the asylum seekers. (Royal Darwin Hospital)]

The Federal Opposition Leader, Malcolm Turnbull, says he has requested to meet some of the asylum seekers who are being treated in the Darwin hospital.

Nine men are still in the hospital after last week's fatal explosion on a boat carrying asylum seekers from Afghanistan.

The blast, near Ashmore Reef, claimed the lives of five people and is the subject of an ongoing investigation by Northern Territory authorities.

Mr Turnbull has told ABC Radio in Darwin he will be visiting the hospital to thank the medical staff who helped treat the victims.

He says he wants to meet some of the asylum seekers too.

"I'd very much like to, but the question is whether that will be made available," he said.

"We have certainly [have] sought to do that but my understanding is that's not going to be possible."

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