Newsletter for 17 July 2018 Rural Australians for Refugees Bellingen and Nambucca Districts

_{Roadside demonstration report
The courts intervene again
Anthony Albanese changes his mind
Protest rally: Saturday 21st July}

_{Roadside demonstration report}

_{Another successful roadside demonstration in Coffs Harbour last week, with overwhelming support from passing motorists. Our next demonstration will be on Thursday 26 July on Hogbin Drive, Toormina, from 2.30 until 4.00 pm. You will find us about 150 from the fire station, in the direction of the airport. Please come and join us if you can.}

_{The courts intervene again}

_{During the past fortnight, four children held on Nauru have been transferred to Australia for urgent medical treatment following the intervention of the courts or the threat of legal action. Every case to date has been won by the legal teams representing very sick minors, and the numbers can only grow. There have now been at least nine such actions, which further reinforces the reality that our government’s harsh and punitive treatment of detainees is untenable. Slowly, one by one, through the intervention of the courts, children are being moved to safety to receive the treatment that their doctors have insisted is necessary.}

_{It is outrageous that our government fights the doctors all the way to court, putting young lives in danger. The current policy requires children to become so physically ill, or so acutely psychologically unwell, that their lives are at risk.}

_{It is surely time for the government to end the cruelty, and for the Labor opposition to demand that the offshore detention centres close.}

_{Anthony Albanese changes his mind}

_{At the Labor party conference in 2015, Anthony Albanese, a senior member of the Labor Shadow Ministry, voted to oppose boat turnbacks, stating: “If people were in a boat including families and children, I myself couldn’t turn that around.” In recent interviews and speeches, however, Albanese asserts that he now does support boat turnbacks, that it is not necessary to place a time limit for people held in offshore detention, and that a Labor government would not allow asylum seekers on Manus and Nauru to ever settle in Australia.}

_{There must be an election coming soon!}

_{If you would like to contact Anthony Albanese to let him know what you think about his change of heart, you can phone his office on 02 9564 3588; email him at: A.Albanese.MP@aph.gov.au, or write to him at : 334A, Marrickville Road, Marrickville, NSW2204. You can find a sample letter on our blog by clicking on the link below.}

_{Protest rally: Saturday 21 July}

_{Preparations are now well advanced for our protest rally which will take place on Saturday 21  July from 10.30 am until 12.30 pm on Harbour Drive, opposite Coffs Central, in Coffs Harbour. Given the bipartisan parliamentary support for the cruel policy of indefinite offshore detention, it is more important than ever that we make our voices heard. To do that, we need a big turnout on Saturday. Please therefore make a commitment to joining us, and please encourage your colleagues, friends and family members to come along. You might like to make your own sign to add to our current stock of banners and placards.}

_{Would you like to have your say at the rally, or to encourage your children/ grandchildren to have their say? You might like simply to come out to the front, where we’ll have a microphone, and tell the crowd: “I’m here today because……”}

_{It would be very powerful if lots of individuals could make a contribution. It matters not that there will inevitably be a fair amount of repetition.}

_{We’ll be handing out leaflets to the public and asking people to sign our open letter to the Labor Party conference delegates.}

_{With your support, we’ll make a big impact on Saturday!}

_{Check out the index of subjects on our blog  http://bellorar.blogspot.com.au} 

_{It includes articles from many sources and letters to politicians and newspapers.}

_{This newsletter is sent to >580 recipients}

_{Our Face book is at https://www.facebook.com/Rural-Australians-for-Refugees-Bellingen-and-Nambucca-Districts-269696303205083/timeline/}

_{(482 likes)}

_{Twitter Account @RARBellingenNam}

_{Email address bellingen.rar@gmail.com}

_{The National RAR web site is at  www.ruralaustraliansforrefugees.org.au} 

_{The National RAR facebook site is at  RAR Facebook}

Asylum seekers who reached Cocos Island could be back in Sri Lanka

Asylum seekers who reached Cocos Islands could be back in Sri Lanka

Immigration department declines to comment but a witness says 18 adults and seven children were taken from a Customs vessel to the airport

An asylum seeker boat that was intercepted close to Christmas Island last year. The asylum seekers who arrived on the Cocos Islands by boat this week appear to have been returned to Sri Lanka by the Australian government.

Helen Davidson and Michael Safi

Friday 6 May 2016 14.23 AEST

Asylum seekers who arrived on the Cocos Islands by boat this week appear to have been returned to Sri Lanka by the Australian government.

A witness on the island said that after nightfall on Thursday he saw 18 adults and seven children “of Sri Lankan appearance” brought from a Customs vessel docked off the West Island to its wharf, Rumah Baru. They were taken to the airport.

The local, who declined to be named, said the transfer was “done cloak and dagger style”. Cardboard had been placed over the windows of the bus used to transport the asylum seekers “to minimise people getting eyes on them”.

The aircraft took off about 9.27pm local time, watched by locals who gathered at the airport’s chain-link fence. The witness said he and others took photographs, and he was in negotiations to sell them to media outlets.

Another witness, who identified herself as Rosie, said she saw a charter aircraft land and take off.

'Asylum seeker boat' arrives in the Australian territory of the Cocos Islands

Read more

The Department of Immigration and Border Protection has declined to answer questions about the boat’s arrival or the fate of its passengers.

However, flight records show that a plane left Cocos shortly before 9.30pm on Friday, and arrived in Colombo, Sri Lanka, just after 4am.

The charter aircraft is owned by a company with Australian federal government contracts, including for the immigration department.

An employee of the company hung up when asked by Guardian Australia to confirm whether the flight was a government-contracted job.

On Monday, a wooden vessel, which observers said was probably carrying asylum seekers from Sri Lanka based on the boat’s appearance, travelled into the islands’ bay under its own power and without interception until it nearly made it to shore.

Witnesses believed the asylum seekers had not been brought to the islands’ main population centres, where just a few hundred people live, but instead taken aboard the Customs ship that first responded.

Last year, four Sri Lankan asylum seekers, intercepted in a boat near the Cocos Islands, were transferred at sea to the custody of the Sri Lankan navy. They were interviewed at sea by border protection officials and the interviews were then assessed by the immigration department.

“All four illegal maritime arrivals were found eligible for return, consistent with Australia’s non-refoulement obligations,” the office of the immigration minister, Peter Dutton, had said at the time.

Under international law, Australia cannot send refugees back to countries in which they may face harm, but the “enhanced screening process” used by the Coalition and the previous Labor governments have been criticised.

Asylum seekers returned to Sri Lanka routinely face court on charges of illegally leaving the country.

Trevor Grant of the Tamil Refugee Council said he had not had contact with the asylum seekers from the boat that approached Cocos Islands but they would probably be arrested in Sri Lanka.

Four asylum seekers transferred at sea to Sri Lankan authorities

Read more

“They’ll be taken straight to jail, under the laws of that country and held for some time,” he told Guardian Australia.

“One of the dangers of being returned, of course, is the Prevention of Terrorism Act, which the Sri Lankan president said he would rescind when he got into power but he still hasn’t done that.

“It’s one of the worst features of that government, and allows people to be just locked up for 18 months without access to lawyers and just disappeared into the jail system. We’re not sure exactly what their situation is but once you’re in jail in that country, especially if you’re Tamil and had any connection to former Tamil tigers, you’re in grave dangers.”

He dismissed the prospect that the asylum seekers might have undergone enhanced screening by Australian officials.

“They’re asked no more than two or three questions in the space of about two or three minutes, if that, and the government decides their situation. It’s a laughable process.”

The 27 islands in the Cocos Keeling group, west of Christmas Island, are Australian territory, but are closer to Indonesia than the Australian mainland.

One resident told Guardian Australia the asylum-seeker boat was first seen by a passenger crossing between two populated islands. The authorities were then alerted, he said.

“The [Australian federal] police were first on the scene and Customs missed it completely. It had got so far in it was close to the shallow waters. If the AFP hadn’t intercepted it, it might have run aground.”

Asylum Seeker Boat reached Christmas Island undetected 20 November 2015

Asylum seeker boat reported to have come within 200m of Christmas Island

The boat appears to approached Flying Fish Cove in the early hours of the morning before being intercepted by Australian officials

Flying Fish cove on Christmas Island. An asylum seeker boat reportedly came within 200m of the harbour on Friday morning. Photograph: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

Michael Safi and Ben Doherty

Friday 20 November 2015 11.57 AEDT

A boat reportedly carrying asylum seekers was intercepted close to Christmas Island on Friday, the first to reach Australian waters since June 2014.

The boat made it within 200m of Flying Fish Cove before it was boarded by Australian officials, sources on the island told Guardian Australia.

It is unclear whether the boat was intercepted by Australian navy or Border Force staff.

Closed doors and troubled minds: the anguish of Christmas Island's detention centre

Read more

Those on board were given life jackets. The boat was moved further away from the island and covered in a tarpaulin so the arrivals cannot be counted or identified, the sources said.

It is the first boat to reach Australian waters since June last year, when 157 Sri Lankan Tamils were intercepted about 300km from the island. They were held on board for a month and, after negotiations to send them back to India broke down, transferred to immigration detention in Nauru.

Australia claims to have “turned back” 20 boats since Operation Sovereign Borders began in late 2013. Boats have been forcibly sent back to Indonesia and Sri Lanka, some crashing on reefs and requiring rescue.

In May at least one boat returned to Indonesia after the crew was paid by Australian government officials, according to an investigation by Amnesty International. The immigration department has not denied paying the people smugglers, but maintained it had acted within international law at all times.

The Greens immigration spokeswoman, senator Sarah Hanson-Young, called on the government to let the boat land safely and unload its passengers.

“The safest thing to do now is to let these people land on Christmas Island and find out who they are,” she said.

“It’s clear that, despite the government’s repeated claims, the boats haven’t stopped.”

An immigration detention centre has operated on the Australian territory since 2001. Its population has changed in the past months to include fewer asylum seekers and more “501s” – migrants whose visas have been cancelled and who face imminent deportation.

At 14 November, the detention facility on the island was home to 199 detainees, 113 of whom, according to the Australian government, had criminal convictions.

The immigration minister, Peter Dutton, confirmed on Friday that 12 New Zealanders had been deported from the facility after riots broke out earlier this month, following the death of an Iranian asylum seeker.

The department of immigration has been contacted for comment on the latest asylum boat.

Another asylum seeker boat not noticed by Australian Border Control

Asylum seeker boat drifted for three days before washing up on Java Coast.

Border Control did not see it. Do they only find a boat if they get a distress call?

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/24/asylum-seeker-boat-with-21-aboard-ran-out-of-fuel-three-days-before-rescue?CMP=ema_632

Where are the boats?

There are two stories that have allowed us to pull aside the veil of secrecy around what is happening at sea with asylum seeker boats.

The boat on the way to New Zealand in June made a distress call and was found by the Australian Navy and returned to Indonesia. It was by luck only that on that return trip no one drowned.

In July a boat from Vietnam reached the West Australian coast. The Border Protection authorities did not know about the boat.

http://bellorar.blogspot.com.au/2015/07/asylum-seeker-boat-arrives-off-western.html



This is very significant. The story we have been told is that, as a result of Government Policy, no one has died at sea.

But if a boat does not make a distress call, the Navy does not know of its existence.

Therefore they do not know how many asylum seekers have died at sea which is the main argument for "stopping the boats".

Please email us at bellingen.rar@gmail.com with your ideas

breaking news 12 August Afghan Government wants to stem flow of forced returns from Australia

see http://bellorar.blogspot.com.au/2015_08_01_archive.html

Asylum Seeker boat arrives off Western Australia Coast UNNOTICED

Suspected asylum seeker vessel heading for Dampier off WA's North West coast

Updated 20 Jul 2015, 5:39pm

Media player: "Space" to play, "M" to mute, "left" and "right" to seek.

 

VIDEO: An asylum seeker boat off the Dampier coast (ABC News)

PHOTO: A boat believed to be an asylum vessel has been spotted off the coast of Dampier in WA's north west. (ABC News)

RELATED STORY: Asylum seekers arrive in WA's north-west

RELATED STORY: Boat carrying asylum seekers pulls into Geraldton

MAP: Dampier 6713

A suspected asylum seeker boat has been spotted off Dampier in Western Australia's North West region.

A Federal Government source has confirmed to the ABC a boat was sighted and will be intercepted.

The ABC understands the boat could be carrying asylum seekers from Vietnam.

A spokesperson for oil and gas company Modec confirmed crew members on one of their tankers off Dampier sighted what appeared to be an asylum seeker boat at first light this morning.

Numbers could not be confirmed but the spokesperson said those onboard appeared to be in good health.

The ABC understands the North West-based police boat Delphinus has been deployed to search for the suspected asylum seeker boat.

The police vessel had been involved in the search for three missing fishermen and their vessel off the Dampier coast until this morning.

Police have been told the suspected asylum seeker boat was believed to be about 70 kilometres offshore.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said it could not comment on the sighting.

A spokesperson for Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Peter Dutton said the Government did not comment on operational matters.

The Greens have criticised the level of government secrecy surrounding the boat's arrival.

"There's no justification for the minister and the department to keep the Australian people and the Australian Parliament in the dark," Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.

"Be upfront about what has occurred here, and just have the guts to tell the Australian people what indeed is going on at our borders."

WA Premier Colin Barnett said he believed West Australian police were "looking after the situation" until a Commonwealth naval vessel arrived.

"This boat while I think it's approaching our coast is still well offshore and it's under surveillance," he said.

"So the situation is in order.

"I think the Abbott Government is doing an enormous amount and has stopped the arrival of boats."

It is almost two years to the day since an asylum seeker vessel arrived at a floating oil platform 200 kilometres off Dampier with 17 people from Vietnam on board.