A 9-yr-old Girl made a Heart-rending Plea for Asylum after a Wooden Refugee Boat carrying 100s of SL-Tamil refugees to AU was Detained! IC shd Help.!

Sri Lankan 9 year old pleads for asylum in Indonesia

A nine-year-old girl made a heart-rending plea for asylum after a wooden refugee boat carrying hundreds of Sri Lankan refugees to Australia was detained in Indonesia, reports said on Thursday.

The little girl, named only as Brindah, choked back tears as she begged foreign governments to open their doors to some 255 ethnic Tamils fleeing Sri Lanka's war-torn north, TV footage showed.

"Please help us and save our lives, we are your children. Please think of us, please, please," said the girl, in pictures broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation from the West Java port of Banten.

"Please sir, please take us to a country. It's OK if it is not Australia. It's better if any other country takes us, we can't live in Sri Lanka."

The report showed the asylum-seekers packed tightly inside the boat, which was stopped on Sunday after a direct tip-off from Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to Indonesia's Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

The group's unofficial spokesman, who gives his name as Alex, stepped back from earlier threats to set fire to the boat by exploding gas canisters in a desperate bid to avoid detention.

But he said the asylum-seekers were in danger in Sri Lanka in the wake of the government's defeat of Tamil Tiger rebels, who ran parts of the country's north.

"We don't want to be stuck in a situation like that," he said. "We are staying on this boat until the international community comes together and makes a decision on finding a way to get us out of this country."

The well-publicised stand-off has reignited Australia's immigration debate and highlighted severe pressure on its detention facilities after a sudden influx of asylum-seekers this year.

Rudd faces frequent opposition attacks for easing the tough immigration policies of his predecessor, John Howard. The prime minister blames economic hardship and wars in Sri Lanka, Iraq and Afghanistan for creating refugees.



AFP

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Comments

IF MAHINDA TREATE THE TAMILS WELL, WHY WOULD THEY WANT TO RUN AWAY?

Posted By: kamara SS

SHAME ON YOU SRILANKA.

Posted By: Bandra.T

When the LTTE war was going on, they expected the international community (IC) to interfere. Now they expect the IC to get them out of Sri Lanka.

Posted By: BudinOz
Hi Sarath and others, Why thousands of Tamils even Singhalase applied for PR/immigration and waiting now... If you donot know that please go and check in medical center who do medicals for these people and police headquaters where people wait for police clearances... Why all these want to run away? I donot want to give answer.. you must understand. Even though tamils in south, Do you think any one will happy to stay there if any country agree to give open visa to them. I am sure that more than 90% will go out...Try to understand the situation than blame these unlucky people who were in middle of travel..

Posted By: lasantha

Mr. Sarath, Why Pettah, Maradana and Wellawatte? We have to take you to Vavuniya and Jaffna. Even to live in Pettah, Maradana, WW, Do you know How many Formalities We have ?? Police Reports, Clearances... Is this called good life??

Posted By: Ezhilini
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400 Lankan Tamil asylum seekers in Australia

By Easwaran Rutnam

More than 400 Sri Lankan asylum seekers who had reached Australia in the past 12 months are being held at the Christmas Island detention Centre, while some 260 others who were intercepted en route to Australia continued their standoff with Indonesian authorities, Australia said yesterday.

Australian Immigration and Citizenship Department spokesman Sandi Logan told Daily Mirror online there were no former LTTE militants or any members of other terrorist groups among the refugees -- whom Australia terms as ‘irregular maritime arrivals.’

“There have been more than 400 Sri Lankan irregular maritime arrivals over the past 12 months. Some have returned to Sri Lanka voluntarily,” he said.

Mr. Logan said all asylum seekers were interviewed to check whether they fell within Australia’s obligations towards refugees and if they don’t they are then repatriated either voluntarily or forcibly.

“Most of the asylum seekers are sent back voluntarily under protection. But there are those who refuse to go back and those people are forced to return,” he said.

When asked to comment on a specific case where it was reported that one Sri Lankan who was sent back was reportedly arrested on charges of being involved in people smuggling, Mr. Logan said his department had heard about it through the Australian High Commission in Sri Lanka and added that he was now in the hands of the Sri Lankan legal system as there were serious charges against him.

Mr. Logan said the key message Australia wanted to give was that it would continue to operate its border protection policy and dismissed the suggestion that this was a weak area.

“We have a multi layered border protection service in place and we have deployed extra resources,” he said when asked about the system that was in place to prevent illegal asylum seekers from reaching Australia.

Meanwhile Australian media quoted the Indonesian navy as saying that 260 Sri Lankans on board a boat in West Java were no longer able to blow themselves up as they had earlier threatened.

A man named Alex who was one of those on board had earlier said they had threatened to blow themselves up if they were forced ashore, but Indonesian navy Colonel Irawan said the group was no longer threatening to commit suicide.

He said the group had no explosives aboard after their gas stoves and diesel fuel were confiscated.

The navy said it was negotiating with the Sri Lankans, as human rights were the first priority and that talks would progress one day at a time.

The boat was intercepted by the Indonesian navy on Sunday after a tip-off from Australian authorities and a call from Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Indonesian navy spokesman First Admiral Iskander Sitompul, told ABC that many of the 260 men, women and children aboard the boat moored at a West Java port feel traumatized about going ashore as they had been "disturbed and tortured" during their journey from Sri Lanka, which began in late July.

He said the asylum seekers had lived in the jungle in Malaysia for several months before a people-smuggling syndicate took their passports and promised to deliver them to Australia.

Harry Purwanto --the head of the Immigration Division of the Law and Human Rights office -- told ABC he was in Sumatra surveying a new immigration detention centre built with Australian aid, as a possible location for the asylum seekers.


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