Immigration authorities in three countries, Indonesia, Australia and Canada are trying to resolve the crisis over Sri Lankan asylum seekers, amidst growing concern that more illegal immigrants may be detected.
On Friday, Indonesia extended by one more week the staying permit for the Oceanic Viking, the Australian ship carrying 78 Sri Lankan refugees and moored on Bintan island since last month.
Indonesian embassy Second Secretary Abdullah Zulkifli told the Sunday Times it was a sensitive issue and it was the responsibility of Australian authorities to resolve the issue, as the asylum seekers had no intention of staying in Indonesia.
In spite of a series of diplomatic efforts between officials of Australia and Indonesia, no permanent solution has been reached.
Earlier this week the people on board the Oceanic Viking, threatened to commit suicide if authorities tried to forcibly evacuate them from the boat.
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| An Australian customs official (R) keeps watch as Sri Lankan refugees look out from the Australian coast guard vessel Oceanic Viking anchored near Tamborah Laut, about 14km (8.2 miles) east of Tanjung Pinang and the port of Kijang on the Indonesian island of Bintan November 6. REUTERS |
International news agencies quoted Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah as saying that the extension would allow the Oceanic Viking to stay while a solution is found to an impasse that has seen the migrants refuse to disembark.
“Hopefully, the extension of the permit until Friday could be an incentive for Australia to speed up the negotiation process with the Sri Lankan migrants and come up with a resolution,” he said.
The migrants were rescued by the Australians last month and brought to Indonesia by agreement between the two governments, but the Sri Lankans have refused to deal with the Indonesians and insist they be taken to Australia.
Australian media have reported that some of the migrants, who were rescued in Indonesia's search and rescue zone, had already been classified as refugees and had been living in Indonesia for up to five years.
Faizasyah said Indonesian and Australian officials met privately on Wednesday to come up with a joint solution to the issue and that relations between the two countries remained healthy.
Indonesia had earlier expressed annoyance about talk in Australia of an “Indonesia Solution” to the crisis that would see Australia pay its northern neighbours to temporarily pay host to asylum seekers stopped at sea.
The recent crisis surrounding Sri Lankan boat people began with the initial detection of a boatload of 255 Sri Lankans in Indonesian waters on October 17.
These people are still on board the boat they were detected in, the Sunday Times learns.
Meanwhile, a Foreign Ministry official said on Friday that it has received information from the Sri Lankan embassy in Jakarta that that ‘Alex’ the person who introduced himself as the spokesman for the 255 boat people was a member of the ‘Kannan Gang’ notorious for street fights in Canada. He had been deported from Canada in 2003, after being arrested for being a trouble-maker.
“Alex had been involved in human smuggling for a long time and it is believed that his office is based in India. His brother who is in Canada is also reportedly involved in human smuggling, and Canadian Mounted Police are hunting for him,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
However, Alex, a.k.a. Kulendrarajah Sanjeev, 28, emotionally denied the allegations when the French news agency AFP contacted him by telephone. He dismissed the allegations as a ruse to discredit the boat people and distract the world attention from widespread human rights abuses in Sri Lanka.
He neither confirmed nor denied the identity given by the Sri Lankan government, saying he could not reveal further information before his asylum claim was heard by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
“I do appreciate the media's efforts to try and expose the truth but I think the media and everyone involved should focus on the truth that is in Sri Lanka at the moment,” Alex said. “Instead of focusing on one person and trying to ... expose that one person on the boat and say that he's a bogus refugee and make accusations that he's a people smuggler,” he added.
“This is the only way that they can try to actually make everybody (on the boat) look bogus.”
He said accusations that he was a people smuggler were “definitely false. A people smuggler would never take the risk and come on a boat.
“Just imagine if a people smuggler came on this boat and arrived in Australia. What do you think all the other people on this boat would do to that people smuggler?”
A convicted Indonesian people smuggler, Abraham Lauhenaspessy, known as “Captain Bram”, was found on the boat last month. Media reports said he forced the boat to turn around after failing to be picked up by another boat and returned to Indonesia, the AFP reported.
Last Sunday a boat which is believed to have left the eastern coast of Sri Lanka capsized in stormy weather in waters northwest of Australia, with 12 people drowning. Twenty seven were rescued These people are to be taken to Christmas Island, in Australia, the Sunday Times learns. An international news service said Australia called off an air and sea search for survivors on Wednesday after the boat carrying unidentified Sri Lankans sank in remote seas.
Home Minister Brendan O'Connor said there was no hope of finding anyone else alive after the boat carrying 39 went down in stormy conditions overnight last Sunday, sparking frantic rescue efforts by passing ships and Australian planes.
“Medical advice received indicates that there is no further chance of survivability,” O'Connor said in a statement. “This is a tragic incident.”
Some 27 male survivors plucked from the sea by the Bahamas-registered LNG Pioneer tanker, along with one body, will be taken to Christmas Island -- Australia's main asylum-seeker processing centre.
However, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the status of the survivors was unknown.
The boat got into trouble late on Sunday some 2,700 kilometres (1,700 miles) from Australia's northwest in the Indian Ocean and sank during a rescue attempt by the LNG Pioneer and a fishing boat, officials said.
Meanwhile according to a Vancouver datelined AFP report Canadian officials have said several of a group of 76 Sri Lankan asylum seekers picked up off the Canadian coast last month have ties to the LTTE and could pose a security risk.The Canadian government told an immigration hearing that the “Ocean Lady”freighter used to transport the migrants has been linked to the LTTE, panel spokeswowan Paula Faber told AFP.
The vessel had “possibly been used for arms shipments” and the men should continue to be detained “on national security grounds,” government officials told the hearing, according to Faber.
Tests showed two of the men detained had explosive residue on their clothes, the officials said.
One of the would-be immigrants was released last week by the Immigration and Refugee Board. Hearings to determine the fate of the others continue. All 76 have indicated they plan to seek asylum in Canada.
“Initially, the Canada Border Services Agency had argued the migrants should be held until their identities could be confirmed,” Faber told AFP.
“The grounds for detention have changed from identity to security in a lot of the cases,” she said.
“We just don't know yet which of the men are linked to the Tamil Tigers and which aren't. We're still sorting it out.”
A spokesman for Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney has said the government will seek to deport any of the group found to have “terrorism or organized crime links.”
Australia plays down Sri Lanka’s
suggestion on unskilled workers
By Bandula Sirimanna
Sri Lanka has suggested to the Australian government to recruit unskilled workers for jobs there, to stem the flow of local asylum seekers to the country.
The suggestion was made by the Controller of Immigration and Emigration P.B.Abeykoon when he held talks with Australian immigration authorities in Canberra recently. Mr. Abeykoon told the Sunday Times there was no way to stop the exodus of Sri Lankans, mostly Tamils, from the country as they leave Sri Lanka by air to countries like Malaysia and Indonesia using valid travel documents including passports and from there they travel by boat to Australia.
He said, his suggestion was welcomed by Australian immigration authorities and that they would explore the possibility of allowing Sri Lankan unskilled migrants to work in Australia.
However, according to Australian media reports, Australian Immigration Minister Chris Evans has rejected this proposal, saying 'Australia does not run an unskilled migration programme.’
Immigration Controller Mr.Abeykoon said these boat people paid between US$10,000 to US$15,000 to human smugglers to travel to Australia. The Tamil diaspora is funding them, he added. Mr. Abeykoon pointed out that allowing unskilled migrants to work in Australia would help curb the illegal racket of people-smuggling and save many lives as they make perilous boat journeys to reach their destinations.
Australian FM here today for talks
By Chris Kamalendran
Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith arrives here today for talks on the Sri Lankan boat-people crisis which has led to a diplomatic dispute between Australia and Indonesia.
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| Stephen Smith |
Mr. Smith, together with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s special envoy Johh McCarthy, is scheduled to meet Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama and other officials tomorrow.
The visit comes as the Australian High Commission in Colombo is carrying out its own probe on how so many Sri Lankans were leaving by boat to seek asylum in Australia. A team led by Second Secretary Joseph Beckett toured Batticaloa and Ampara districts to gain first hand information about human trafficking rackets.
The Sunday Times last week reported on how Sri Lankans were leaving the eastern coast to seek asylum in Australia.
The Navy, subsequently denied reports that people were leaving from the eastern coast.
But, the Sunday Times has interviewed persons connected with the racket. They include a person who was in a group of 32 who met with a mid-sea accident on their way to Australia. He was rescued and later arrested by the Police.
The person was under police protection in the Valachchenai hospital until last week.
The crisis over human cargo rackets deepened after at least four separate incidents involving Sri Lankans were reported from Australia, Indonesia and Canada. So far more than 400 Sri Lankans have been detained in Indonesia and other countries following these incidents reported during the past six weeks. |
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