The following is the text of a letter sent by the asylum seekers on board the Tampa and presented to the Federal Court:
To the Australian government, human rights organisations and Australian ladies and gentlemen, We hope you accept regards and warm feelings of the miserable and oppressed Afghan refugees turning around Christmas island in the middle of sea, while having no shelter, clothes to change after ten days and even toilet and bathrooms.
Respected Australian government and gentlemen and ladies! You know well about the long time war and its tragidic [sic] human consequences, and you know about the genocide and massacres going on in our country and thousands of men, women and children were pit in public grieveyards [sic], and we hope you understand that keeping in view all aforementioned reasons we have no way but to run out of our dear homeland and to seek a peaceful asylum. And until now so many miserable refugees have been seeking asylum in so many countries. In this regards before this Australia has taken some real appreciatiable [sic] initiatives and has given asylum to a high number of refugees from our miserable people. That is why we are whole-heartedly and sincerely thankful to you.
We hope you do not forget that we are also from the same miserable and oppressed refugees and now turning around Christmas island inside Australian boundaries waiting "permit" to inter [sic] your country. But your delay while we are in the worst conditions has hurt our feelings. We do not know why we have not been regarded as refugee and deprived from rights or refugees according to international convention (1951). We request from Australian authorities and people, at first not to deprive us from the right that all refugees enjoy in your country. And in the case of rejection due to not having anywhere to live o the earth and every moment death is threatening us. We request you to have mercy for the life of (438) men, women and children.
Yours sincerely,
Afghan refugees
Now off the coast of Christmas Island
30/8/2001
In an act of unprecedented co-operation the Norwegian Refugee Council and the Refugee Council of Australia wish to release a joint statement in connection with the dramatic situation pertaining to the refugees onboard the Norwegian tank ship, the �Tampa�.
We have during the last few years witnessed several examples of populist forces consciously appealing to the fear of other cultures for the purpose of their own political gain. This has been observed in Europe and Australia alike, and often during election campaigns. Rather that fulfilling their international responsibility, countries initiate processes in order to avoid responsibility for refugees. Both the Norwegian Refugee Council and Refugee Council of Australia are greatly opposed to this tendency.
For more information, please contact: the Refugee Council of Australia or the Norwegian Refugee Council, mobile: (0011 47) 901 04 664 or (0011 47) 911 01 096
The Age yesterday (22 October) carried an article by Marian Wilkinson and David Marr under this headline, reviewing the Tampa affair and looking ahead to its likely consequences.
Not comfortable reading for those responsible for this shameful business.
From The Sydney Morning Herald
Date: 05/10/2001
By Craig Skehan in Nauru and Andrew Clennell
The last of the asylum seekers aboard HMAS Manoora were transferred to Nauru yesterday by Australian soldiers, but not without more trauma and tears.
A doctor had to be sent aboard an Australian Navy landing craft to treat women and children, apparently for heat exhaustion, in another day of stand-offs.
In one of the six groups to come off the Manoora yesterday, 166 people in all, children were seen to be crying or otherwise visibly distressed.
While some asylum seekers came ashore without resistance, on three occasions asylum seekers were left on the landing craft in extreme heat while negotiators tried to persuade them to leave.
Despite the heat, one group of about 30 asylum seekers remained firm for about 1 hours before giving in.
Women in Muslim head-scarves had crouched, surrounded by soldiers, trying to find patches of shade.
All 224 asylum seekers from an Indonesian boat, the Aceng, defied the Australian Government for two weeks by refusing to be taken off the Manoora to an Australian-built detention centre on Nauru.
But the deadlock was broken on Monday when the Australian Government used force to remove the 12 Iraqi leaders, despite Nauruan Government statements that it would only accept voluntary arrivals.
It was the heat, and the use of asylum seekers already at the detention centre to describe the situation there, which broke yesterday's three deadlocks.
Nauru's Secretary to Government, Mr Mathew Batsuia, said last night he was confident, with Nauruan observers on board the Manoora, that force had not been used to remove people. "It was unfortunate people suffered from heat exhaustion ... but in the end people voluntarily got off," he said.
In recent days media access to asylum seekers has been stopped, making it impossible to obtain accounts from people on whether they did leave voluntarily. However, United Nations officials are taking statements from the detainees, including on the circumstances of their removals.
A spokesman for the Immigration Minister, Mr Ruddock, said no force was used in yesterday's operation. "We are happy the disembarkations were all voluntary," he said.
The Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr Downer, stepped up the public relations battle on Australia's treatment of refugees by pledging another $9 million for Afghan refugees in Afghanistan and Pakistan yesterday.
The money came on top of $14 million pledged to the UN's High Commissioner for Refugees in Pakistan by Mr Ruddock in Parliament on August 29, day three of the Tampa controversy.
That funding was formally announced by Mr Downer on September 23.
Yesterday's $9 million followed $9.5 million spent last year by Australia on aid agencies in Afghanistan. It included $5 million to buy 7,200 tonnes of Australian flour.
Mr Downer said there were up to 6 million vulnerable people in Afghanistan and 3.5 million Afghan refugees living in Iran and Pakistan.
Mr Ruddock's spokesman said aid was the best way of relieving the refugee problem, adding there was no plan to increase the intake of Afghans in the refugee and humanitarian program despite Australia accepting only 406 Afghans out of 8,261 resettled from overseas last year.
The UNHCR said Australians had donated more than $30,000 to the Afghan Refugee Emergency Appeal. Donations can be made at National Australia Bank branches.
Last night (Weds 23 Sep) the government and "opposition" agreed to guillotine debate on a package of new legislation, to protests from Greens senator Bob Brown and independent Brian Harradine. The government will now have powers to turn boats around that are headed for Australia, ban court appeals for asylum seekers, restrict the definition of refugee under Australian law, and remove Australian territories such as Christmas Island and the Ashmore Reef from Australia's migration zone. There will also be mandatory sentencing for "people smugglers."
Meanwhile, about 70 people from the Tampa, including five pregnant women, flew from Nauru to auckland yesteday, but 217 Iraquis and Palestinians from the Aceng are still on board the HMAS Manoora and refusing to disembark. And the Australian goverment agreed to send $1 million in cash to the government of Nauru so it can pay its employees ...
Melbourne solicitor Eric Vadarlis was to apply today for leave to appeal to the High Court against Tuesday's decision by the full Federal court that the Tampa asylum seekers do not have to be brought back to Australia. But the government's Border Protection Bill, which it now expects to be able to pass with the support of Labor, will be retrospective, making its actions "legal" regardless of any High Court decision. Apparently this is called democracy.
[Tuesday 18 Sep]The full bench of the Federal Court has ruled in favour of the Government's appeal against Justice North's ruling of last Tuesday. Howard & Co are celebrating by introducing yet more legislation aimed at penalising victims and currying favour with the racist right. The so-called Labor Opposition is not going to be left behind - it has already announced its support for bills which have only one purpose - to promote a "Fortress Australia" mentality, drumming up racist fears in the lead-up to the coming election and diverting scrutiny from the Coalition's abysmal record in government. RAC supporters are encouraged to make full use of the links below, to Howard and his favourite son Ruddock.
Probably the best source of breaking news updates is ABC Online. Click here for the latest update.
There is also a full and growing archive of news material on the RacNews site at Topica. If you are not already a subscriber to the group, you can read the listings by clicking here and following the prompts. To join, email [email protected]
Don't forget you can tell John Howard directly what you think of his policy:click here
The Minister himself is inviting comment on his immigration policy on his website:click here.
A group of activists in Scandinavia have set up a "Operation [distress] Flare" ("Operation N�dbluss") to send a graphic message to the Australian embassy in Norway. click here to send a flare.
Media attention around the world has been intense, not least in Norway. Many people from Australia have taken advantage of the English-language pages of the main Norwegian daily, Aftenposten, to express their views on the Tampa affair. Some have taken the line which dominated talkback radio in the first days of the crisis, but the majority condemn Howard and Ruddock's position, and the Australian government's treatment of asylum seekers. To access the forum,click here. The address for emails is [email protected].
RAC supporters will also be interested in the article by Phillip Adams in this week's Weekend Australian Review entitled "Beware: Bigotry is back". Here area few quotes:
And finally:Although Ruddock is the principal tub-thumper of this disgusting policy, Con Sciacca,the Opposition spokesman, isn't worth feeding. Here is another issue on which the Opposition plays dead, at best suggesting some fine-tuning to the system, at worst playing to the same electoral fears. To ratchet up the nastiness, Ruddock wants to imprison people for up to 10 years if they asisst anyone to escape from a detention centre. If you offer an escaper sanctuary, he suggests the same sentence: 10 years. That's more than many people get for murder.
Even if a person arriving without documentation is granted asylum, they're still condemned for taking places reserved for genuine refugees. But don't suggest that a simpler cure for the problem would be to create a few more places. The pressure on Australia from illegals is all but nonexistent compared with the scale of unwelcome immigration to the US or Europe, but that doesn't stop Ruddock playing to lurid fantasies and ancient fears.Hence the demonising of poor bastards fleeing Iran, Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan...
In Pakistan, people have waited so long to be granted visas by Australian officialdom, they have died of old age. For details, read the recent working paper 'Security, People Smuggling and Australia's New Afghan refugees,' by William Maley, associate professor of politics at University College, University of NSM ...
But back to Ruddock's 10 years in the slammer. He says there wouldn't be "200 people in Australia" who would want to provide aid and succour to an escapee. In a sense he is absolutely right. There would be thousands.
I'm putting my hand up and asking others to join me. Let's sign up for a register of civil disobedience. Those who don't like this latter-day version of White Australia, who disapprove of the demonisation of Middle Easterners and Muslims ...might like to drop me a line. (Sorry, no emails.) And I'll wave the names in the faces of the Government and the Opposition.