Quick Refugee Update 4 - Tamil boats
Well, they did it. They handed 41 people back to Sri Lanka, including 4 Tamils. I'm a little bit in shock. I was sure the lawyers might be able to stop them somehow.
That's the smaller boat accounted for. Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has confirmed the existence of the larger boat, whose passengers are presumably undergoing the same "screening" procedure.
Australia's official position is that the Sri Lankan government is complicit in torture and disappearances, just as human rights organisations have documented. Presumably handing over torture victims for more of the same is part of our "engagement" with that government.
ETA: People smugglers were not involved in the voyage of the second, larger boat, which contains asylum seekers who have been arrested by or harassed by Indian authorities.
ETA (thanks hnpcc): High Court bars asylum seeker handover - an interim injunction for the second boat. The case will be heard tomorrow. (Was this injunction made possible by the government's admission that it had handed over the last boatload?)
That's the smaller boat accounted for. Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has confirmed the existence of the larger boat, whose passengers are presumably undergoing the same "screening" procedure.
Australia's official position is that the Sri Lankan government is complicit in torture and disappearances, just as human rights organisations have documented. Presumably handing over torture victims for more of the same is part of our "engagement" with that government.
ETA: People smugglers were not involved in the voyage of the second, larger boat, which contains asylum seekers who have been arrested by or harassed by Indian authorities.
ETA (thanks hnpcc): High Court bars asylum seeker handover - an interim injunction for the second boat. The case will be heard tomorrow. (Was this injunction made possible by the government's admission that it had handed over the last boatload?)