About
8 or 10 months back, because of the harsh economic conditions,
prevailing in northern Sri Lanka, a group of Tamils decided to
migrate to India. They somehow reached the Indian shores safely, but
found the living conditions quite impossible. After spending roughly
six months in India, they found their existence in India rather
precarious, because they were unable to find work and their children
could not attend school, while some had fears about their safety. It
was then that they decided to migrate to Australia as refugees. The
group of 157 people, consisting of mostly ethnic Tamils from Sri
Lanka and including 50 children, left the Indian port of Pondicherry
in June 2014 on a boat arranged by some illegal human traffickers.
They
however never managed to reach the Australian shore and were picked
up by Australian authorities towards the end of June on high seas and
this is where their ordeal supposedly began. They were made to spend
next three or four weeks on a customs boat, mostly locked in
windowless rooms and were finally taken to Australian mainland July
25. The asylum seekers were first taken to Cocos Island and then
flown to the Curtin Detention Centre in remote Western Australia.
Australia's
immigration Minister Scott Morrison, unilaterally decided that these
people were actually economic migrants and they must go back to
India, even when they were not Indian citizens. He came out with a
statement saying that the group will undergo identity checks from
Indian consular officials and that none will be resettled in
Australia. He added that India has agreed to take back any of its
citizens and will consider taking Sri Lankan nationals who are Indian
non-citizen residents.
This
was immediately questioned by Australia's Refugee and Immigration
Legal Centre executive director David Manne, who said: "It is a
fundamental principle of refugee protection that people should not
have to deal with officials from the country they have fled from.
People who are seeking protection should never be put in a position
where they are exposed to officials from another country without a
proper assessment first being made of their claims of persecution.”
What
came next was a move that can be straight way assigned to chronicles
of Fifteenth or sixteenth century white colonists, who treated the
black or brown natives with utmost contempt and considered them as
some kind of inferior human beings. In fact preparations for this
move had began, when the group was on customs boat itself. After the
people were interviewed nine of the adults were separated from the
others while they were still on the customs vessel and were taught
how to use a lifeboat. They were told that there would be 50 to 60
people on each lifeboat and they would have to navigate them back to
India on open seas. Naturally, Sri Lankans refised saying they had no
experience in operating or navigating a boat, and couldn’t take
responsibility for ensuring the safety of those on board. However,
the officers told them that it was an Australian government decision
and they had to obey.
Any
one can imagine the cruelty of this decision, under which 50 or 60
people were to be put in a life boat captained by a total novice and
launched from Australian shore on open seas, for going to India. It
was like giving them a death warrant. Naturally, the Sri Lankan
asylum seekers, absolutely terrified at the prospect of travelling to
India in a life boat, refused point blank even to meet Indian
consular officers saying that they were Sri Lanka citizens.
Australia's
immigration Minister Scott Morrison then came out with another cruel
statement, when he said that the government had provided a “rare
opportunity” for many of those on board the vessel to “go back to
where they had been living in safety in India, where they have family
and friends.” No doubt it was a rare opportunity indeed, where else
can you get a lifetime chance to travel from Australia to India on
open sea on a life boat?
Refugee camp on Naaru island
Sri
Lankans were wise enough and refused to go along with this cruel plan
of Australian Government. Under Australia’s policy to stop
people-smuggling boats, all asylum-seekers arriving by boat are sent
to Nauru (Naaru is a tiny island in Pacific ocean.) and Papua New
Guinea for processing and resettlement, and are denied resettlement
in Australia even if found to be genuine refugees. Scott Morrison
confirms this and says that even if Sri Lankans are found to be
refugees they will be resettled on Nauru, not in Australia.
He
however feels sad that they did not take his life boat to India offer
and says “If they are not found to be a refugee they will go back
to Sri Lanka, not India. Going back to India, where they are likely
to have family and friends, is no longer an option for those who were
living there,”
Readers
can judge themselves but all I can add is what Australians were
trying to do with Sri Lankans is nothing but apathy and raw apartheid tendancies so
typically shown by white colonists of the past. Just imagine, what
would have Australians done to the migrants, if the boat they had
travelled had contained, instead of Sri Lankans, white Europeans from
say Serbia or Ukraine?
6th
August 2014
No comments:
Post a Comment