Naval blockade fails to stop asylum seekers
Naval blockade fails to stop asylum seekers
CANBERRA (Agencies): A naval blockade to fend off illegal
immigrants failed on Thursday to turn away the latest Indonesian
boat carrying asylum seekers to Australia.
A spokesman for Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock said the
navy, on heightened alert in the Indian Ocean between Australia
and Indonesia, had warned the Sumbar Bahagia carrying 129 mainly
Iraqi asylum seekers to change its course.
"But the passengers became aggressive and, despite being
warned off, insisted on coming in to Ashmore Island," the
spokesman told Reuters, referring to an uninhabited Australian
reef island about 860 km (534 miles) off the mainland.
"They will be kept on that boat until a decision is made what
to do with them."
The Sumbar Bahagia is the fourth vessel in 18 days laden with
boat people to be refused entry to Australia as the government
cracks down on a rising flows of illegal immigrants.
Instead, Australia has struck a US$10 million deal with the
tiny Pacific island of Nauru to take in most of the boat people,
who pay criminals to smuggle them to Indonesia and then on to
Australia.
Canberra says another 9,000 migrants are waiting in Indonesia
and Malaysia for transport, prompting concerns that Nauru will
not be able to cope. The poor Pacific nation of Kiribati was
reported to have stepped up to the plate and has also offered to
help.
Court
Australia's hardline stance began in late August when Canberra
defied world outrage and rejected 433 mainly Afghan boat people
rescued by the Norwegian freighter Tampa from a sinking
Indonesian ferry. Indonesia also refused to accept them.
The Tampa's passengers were eventually put on board the navy
troop carrier HMAS Manoora and, along with another 237 picked up
later from an Indonesian fishing boat, are on route to Nauru.
On Tuesday the navy found a third vessel with about 130
people on board grounded near Ashmore Reef and was trying to make
the boat seaworthy to push it back out into international waters.
Australia's crackdown on illegal immigrants has boosted the
popularity of the conservative government, wiping out opposition
Labor's lead ahead of a tough year-end election.
About 5,000 mainly Middle Eastern, Pakistani and Afghani boat
people arrive in Australia each year, a small number
internationally but a sharp rise on a few hundred five years ago.
But the crackdown was dealt a blow on Tuesday when a court
ruled the government acted illegally in ordering troops on to the
Tampa, keeping it marooned at sea for eight days while it
searched for other countries to take its human cargo.
Federal Court Justice Tony North ruled on Tuesday that
the 433 asylum seekers, rescued from a sinking Indonesian ferry
by a Norwegian cargo ship on Aug. 26 off Australia's remote
Christmas Island must be allowed into Australia by late Friday.
During Thursday's hearing, Chief Justice Michael Black
described the case as urgent, and asked the government and civil
rights lawyers representing the refugees to limit their
submissions, with a view to ending the hearing Thursday.
If the government fails to overturn the original decision in
the Federal Court, it could launch another appeal in the High
Court.
Australian government on Thursday insisted it has the right to
turn away asylum seekers.
Solicitor-General David Bennett told a full bench of the
Federal Court in Melbourne that there was no doubt Australia had
the executive power to repel people trying to sneak into the
country, even if it involved reasonable force and detention.