Refugees: UN, Indonesia savage Howard Government

Oh what tangled webs we weave, when first we practice to deceive!

by Peter Mac

One of the surprising aspects of the Melville Island refugee 
affair has been the ease with which the Government's deceit has 
been uncovered. After all, they've had lots of practice, so they 
should be experts at keeping things covered up.

As the reader is doubtless aware, recently the Howard Government 
retrospectively excised four thousand islands from Australia's 
migration zone, and forced a boatload of 14 Turkish Kurds back to 
Indonesia after they landed on Melville Island.

However, last week the web of lies the Government spun to justify 
its callous actions began to unravel — at a rate of knots, as it 
were.

Firstly, the Minister for Immigration, Amanda Vanstone, claimed 
repeatedly that "the passengers on the Minasa Bone didn't claim 
asylum in Australia". However, the asylum seekers declared they'd 
repeatedly asked for political asylum in Australia while they 
were anchored at Melville Island.

Secondly, despite the Government's claim that it made 
arrangements with Indonesian authorities for the men to be given 
the opportunity to claim asylum in Australia, the Indonesian 
Government has expressed outrage at the Howard Government's 
actions. It denies giving prior approval for the refugees to come 
to Indonesia.

"What do they think Indonesia is, a trash bin for these people?" 
an Indonesian official asked indignantly.

Thirdly, revelations arising from the Indonesian Government's 
inquiry into the matter are further damaging the already tense 
relations between the two countries.

Fourthly, the refugees have stated that they were not pushed back 
into the water by the Melville Islanders, as Senator Vanstone 
claimed. One Melville Islander said that the local people 
actually greeted the Kurds and provided them with food and water. 
Moreover, the refugees have stated that they were actually forced 
back to the boat by men dressed in Khaki uniforms. Could the 
Australian Army have been involved in the expulsion?

Fifthly, the Kurds say that the Australian armed services 
personnel replied to their pleas for asylum by telling them to 
shut up, and that they refused to provide them with food or 
medicines, forcing them to remain sick and hungry on the boat for 
four days before it was towed away.

And finally, the UN has said the Government has breached the 1951 
UN covenant on refugees. In a stinging rebuke, UN spokesman, Kris 
Janowski, said that the Government's actions jeopardised "the 
proper functioning of the international protection regime", and 
that these actions set a "negative precedent worldwide".

It's a miracle that the Minasa Bone, already weakened by the 
first crossing, made it back to Indonesia. One refugee claimed: 
"The waves were enormous. We didn't know if we'd live or die."

Mr Janowski commented: "Our main concern is that people who are 
already vulnerable have been made even more vulnerable by 
Australia's neglect of its international obligations."

The Government has now grudgingly admitted that the 14 people 
pleaded to come to Australia and to be treated as refugees. 
Normally this would be regarded as an application for asylum.

Foreign Affairs Minister, Alexander Downer, denies this too, 
seeking refuge in legal niceties: ". it doesn't have any legal 
significance, because, as you know, Melville Island was excised 
from the Australian migration zone by the Attorney-General, so in 
these circumstances such an application wouldn't have had any 
meaning in law, as I understand it."

It's doubtful whether such arguments will cut any ice with either 
the Indonesian Government or the UN. Greens Senator Bob Brown 
called for an official inquiry, and bluntly accused the 
Government of having lied over this matter, just as it did over 
the "children overboard" and Iraqi "weapons of mass destruction" 
affairs.

The ease with which the Melville Island deception has been 
uncovered indicates that the Government has become supremely 
arrogant and confident over its policies, and doesn't 
particularly care if it's found out.

This cavalier attitude was reflected in three cases being heard 
before the High Court. In one case involving a stateless 
Palestinian man born in Kuwait but denied Kuwaiti citizenship, 
the ultra-conservative Justice Callinan asked the man's counsel 
why the Federal Government shouldn't be able to lock up failed 
asylum seekers "to stop them taking the jobs of Australians".

Then there's the case of Abbas al-Khafaji, who was born in Iraq, 
but moved to Syria as a child. Because of his outspoken views 
about Iraqi politics his life would be in danger if he were 
returned to Iraq rather than to Syria.

The Syrian Government is not prepared to take him. The situation 
is reminiscent of one of the horror novels of Franz Kafka.

Appearing for the Federal Government, the Solicitor-General 
admitted quite readily that under government policy, detainees in 
such situations could actually be forced to live out their lives 
and die in detention centres.

Justice Michael McHugh agreed: "That may be horrific, but as a 
matter of pure constitutional power, I don't see what's to stop 
it".

Oh brave new world, that hath such creatures in it.

It now seems that the only way the asylum seeker issue can be 
resolved in a humane way is to replace the Howard Government with 
one with truly progressive convictions.