Asylum seekers charged over riot

LATEST NEWS: 0930 WAST

Australian Federal Police have charged 11 asylum seekers following a brawl at a detention centre on Christmas Island that left 40 people injured.



Police say the men, aged between 21 and 36, face a total of 23 charges including riot, assault and possessing weapons.

The charges relate to a fight at the North West Point Immigration Detention Centre on November 21 last year.

It is understood the men appeared before the Christmas Island Magistrates Court on Wednesday afternoon.

Ian Rintoul from the Refugee Action Coalition says the conditions at the detention centre, not the asylum seekers, are to blame for the riot.

"At the time we were told there was no damage to the detention centre," he said.

"It just seems to me to be entirely vindictive that the Federal Police and the Government are pursuing the asylum seekers for a fight that was really created by conditions inside the detention centre."

Last year it was reported that 150 Afghan and Sri Lankan asylum seekers attacked each other with pool cues, tree branches and broom handles.

Staff at the centre brought the riot under control within 30 minutes.

Thirty-seven detainees received medical treatment on the island and another three were flown to Perth with broken bones. Five security staff were also injured in the clash.

Refugee campaigners said overcrowding led to the violence, but the Government said tension had been building at the centre for some time, due partly to concerns from some Sri Lankans that their asylum applications would fail.

At the time, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the riot could affect the refugee applications of the asylum seekers involved.
-ABC

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Australian of the Year sets off debate on asylum seeker detention; Professor Patrick McGorry

LATEST NEWS: 0930 WAST

He's been Australian of the Year for just a day, but acclaimed psychiatrist Professor Patrick McGorry has spent it embroiled in controversy. Professor McGorry accepted his award, and then touched off a new row on the politically volatile issue of asylum seekers by pointing out the mentally corrosive effects of Australia's detention policies. He woke to find newspaper headlines declaring it an attack on Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on the issue.




MOTTRAM: Australians have long prided themselves on the 'fair go' and frank speaking. So it should perhaps have been no surprise to the Australian government that this year's Australian of the Year, internationally renowned psychiatrist Professor Patrick McGorry, would speak about the mental health implications of 15 years of detaining asylum seekers.

McGORRY: The detention centres were, you could almost describe them as factories for producing mental illness and mental disorder.

MOTTRAM: Immigration detention had been an "absolute disaster" that Australia must not repeat, Professor McGorry said, citing research in such august journals as The Lancet and adding that he was talking about previous policy. But his reference to past practices was not enough to prevent major newspapers from splashing headlines like: "Australian of the Year attacks Rudd over refugees".

At a time the Professor was especially empowered to sell his message about continuing shortfalls in mental health policy in Australia generally, he was having to clarify his immigration detention views.

McGORRY: I actually said that the Rudd Government was doing an excellent job of digging us out of a very deep hole, they may not have got to the top of the hole yet but I was trying to encourage them to keep going and I certainly wasn't critical of the present Government's policies. The direction of them is very good.

MOTTRAM: The Professor managed to briefly stop the Prime Minister at yet another Australia Day event to explain his comments. And while Mr Rudd was reassuring, it's unlikely the government will have welcomed a new spotlight on the contentious issue. The Opposition leader, Tony Abbott, deflected the Professor's criticism of immigration detention as applied under the previous government of which Mr Abbott was a member and will doubtless feature in another day's newspaper and television coverage of the issue.

ABBOTT: The pity of the current government's policies is because they've sent the wrong signal to people smugglers, you've got more people coming, you've got more people in detention and you 've got more people who give rise to the kind of concerns that Professor McGorry has expressed.

MOTTRAM: Those pressing a human rights based view of the issue, like the Australian Greens, seized the chance to stress that while other remote detention centres have been closed, the Rudd government retains the centre on Christmas Island, that's now almost full.

HANSON-YOUNG: They are inappropriate facilities. And we must not forget that there are also children detained there. So the impact on their mental health is quite severe.

MOTTRAM: The Immigration minister Chris Evans, also at a noisy Australia Day ceremony, defended the government's efforts to protect the health of detainees, particularly attempts to speed up processing times.

EVANS: One of the reasons its been proven to be more dangerous if you like than prison sentences is that people don't know when they're going to get out. They've got no idea how long they were to be kept there. That was the system under the Howard government. We've vastly improved the detention facilities, the support they get and the processing times and so I think we've got the balance right.

MOTTRAM: But after his initial embarassment at coverage of his remarks Professor McGorry, who's particular specialty is youth mental health, continued to speak to the media about immigration detention and its impact on those who've often already experienced torture and trauma. And he says he wants to visit the Christmas Island facility during his tenure as Australian of the Year.
-ABC RADIO

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Authorities intercept eighth asylum boat this year; 48 passengers and 3 crew

LATEST NEWS: 0930 WAST
AUTHORITIES have intercepted another boatload of suspected asylum-seekers in Australian waters -- the eighth this year.




Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor said the boat, carrying 48 passengers and three crew, was intercepted by HMAS Launceston just before midnight on Tuesday, 12 nautical miles northeast of Ashmore Reef.

Mr O'Connor said the asylum-seekers had been transferred

to a Customs ship and would be taken to Christmas Island for "security, identity and health checks".

Former federal police commissioner Mick Palmer, who headed the inquiry into the wrongful detention of Cornelia Rau for 10 months in 2004 and 2005, called for asylum-seekers to be brought to the mainland.

Mr Palmer said the experience of detention was inherently stressful for refugees, many of whom were victims of war or torture, meaning they required specialist carers and counselling services.

"The current overcrowding on Christmas Island would make that level of care very difficult," Mr Palmer told The Australian.

According to the Immigration Department, there are 1564 people on Christmas Island, 200 of whom are living in tents. The facility was designed for just 400 people but has been reconfigured to hold 1848 following the arrival last year of almost 3000 boatpeople.

Mr Palmer said he fully understood the dilemma governments faced in managing refugee flows.

"But we should never allow the ends to justify the means," he said.

His comments follow those of newly named Australian of the Year Patrick McGorry, who labelled detention centres "factories" for mental illness.
-THE AUSTRALIAN

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Asylum seekers blocked from rescue boat, inquest told

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LATEST NEWS: 0913 WAST




A member of the Australian Defence Force raised his foot and connected with the heads of two asylum seekers to block them from clambering onto a rescue boat, an inquest has heard.

Corporal Sharon Jager has told a coronial inquest that she was blown into the water by a blast on the SIEV 36 asylum seeker boat near Ashmore Reef last April.

The incident left five Afghan asylum seekers dead.

Corporal Jager said her life jacket did not open and she was struggling to get onto a Navy boat that had come to rescue her.

"[Able Seaman Adrian Medbury] has moved along and he has physically removed the two asylum seekers, saying 'Get the f--- off her, get the f--- of her' as he dragged me into the boat," she told the inquest.

"I saw him raise one of his feet, connect with the asylum seekers, from what I saw it was the head."

The inquest has previously heard that Navy personnel rescued members of the Defence Force before asylum seekers, which is Navy procedure.

Earlier, the naval officer in charge of the boat shortly before it exploded broke down while giving evidence.

The inquest has already heard evidence the fire on the SIEV 36 was deliberately lit with matches or a cigarette lighter.

Chief Petty Officer Faunt told the inquest if he had been in charge of the naval party that first boarded the boat he would have confiscated lighters and matches, whether or not there was petrol on board.

Later, when he was on board the boat, he did not have enough manpower to take the items from the passengers.

But he said in hindsight he should have removed matches from the boat's cabin.

Chief Faunt has suffered post traumatic stress disorder since the fatal blast in April last year.

He was overcome with emotion when asked how much sleep he had had in the time leading up to the explosion, leading to the inquest being briefly adjourned.

He said Navy personnel did not stand back and were active in rescuing the boat's passengers.

The inquest continues.
-ABC

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105 ethnic Hazaras feared drowned

A boatload of asylum seekers believed to have set off from Indonesian waters for Australia in October has never arrived, the Afghani refugee community says.

Brisbane-based Hassan Ghulam said worried relatives of 105 ethnic Hazaras believed to have left Indonesia on October 2 had started contacting him weeks ago.

Hazara are a Persian-speaking ethnic group who live mainly in the central region of Afghanistan.
"A young gentleman, he had a brother on that boat, he contacted me (saying) that the boat departed Indonesia on October 2 with 105 Hazaras on it," Mr Ghulam said.

"He asked if I had heard anything on the arrivals because he had had no news for quite some time."
Mr Ghulam said other Australian-based Hazaras who had learnt that their relatives were on the boat had become anxious.

Checks with the Department of Immigration and Customs and Border Protection had revealed nothing about the fate of the boat or those on board, Mr Ghulam said.
Contacts of the men had travelled to Indonesia and checked detention centres but had found no sign of them, he said.

"There was no news at all. The gentleman contacted me again and he had no news," Mr Ghulam said.
"He told me there were people who made inquiries, travelled to Indonesia, checked the detention centres et cetera and there is no sign of the 105 people."

Jack Smit of human rights group Project SafeCom Inc said it was important to know what happened to the boat and what happened during the voyage.
"If it was monitored by Indonesia on behalf of the Australian government, we need to know whether it was intercepted by Indonesian authorities," Mr Smit said.

"Conversely, if its voyage was monitored in Australian waters by Australian maritime and border protection authorities, we need to know what happened to the boat. If the boat perished, we need to hear that from the authorities."
A Department of Immigration spokeswoman said the department could not reveal the identities of asylum seekers being processed for their own protection.

But asylum seekers are granted access to telephones to contact their families on arrival, she said.
-The West

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Visa denial leaves refugees in detention-Potentially Australian Guantanamo Bay

LATEST NEWS: 1530 WAST-12/01/2010

The Federal Government says a fifth Tamil refugee has been refused a visa to live in Australia, leaving him, his wife and their children in detention limbo on Christmas Island.




There is pressure now on the Immigration Department to resettle the refugees in another country, prompting outspoken Liberal backbencher Wilson Tuckey to label Christmas Island as "potentially Australia's Guantanamo Bay".

The department earlier today confirmed that three Sri Lankan men and a woman who were on board the Oceanic Viking had been denied visas because ASIO decided they pose a security risk.

The woman has two young children and all three are being detained on Christmas Island.

Immigration Minister Chris Evans says the woman's husband has now also been refused a visa.

"There is an additional person who around the same time was found by our security agencies to have not met the public interest criteria in terms of his security assessment," Senator Evans said.

"It is the case that this man is the spouse of the mother of the two children who was onboard the Oceanic Viking."

Senator Evans will not say why the five have been refused visas.

"I don't know the nature of ASIO's finding, so I couldn't help you if I wanted to. But as you know, I wouldn't anyway," he said.

The Federal Government had promised 78 Sri Lankans quick processing to coax them off the Oceanic Viking and into an Indonesian detention centre.

Some of them have been resettled in Australia or Canada.

A spokeswoman for the Immigration Department has said Australia is continuing to search for another country to resettle them.

She said they could also choose to leave Australia voluntarily.

Mr Tuckey, who last year said he was worried terrorists could be on board boats of asylum seekers, says the Government will have difficulty resettling the visa-less refugees in another country.

"Christmas Island is now potentially Australia's Guantanamo Bay," he said.

"We could end up holding that facility in operation for years as luxury accommodation for people whom we won't let come to Australia, and yet at the same time will not be wanted by anyone else."

Opposition treasury spokesman, Joe Hockey, says Mr Tuckey has been vindicated for raising security concerns.

"More fool Kevin Rudd for coming out and saying that Wilson Tuckey should apologise," Mr Hockey said.

"I think Wilson's had a win there. He deserves recognition for the fact that of course there are going to be risks with unsolicited arrivals in Australia."

Final say
The Greens Leader, Bob Brown, says ASIO should not have the final say on whether the Tamil refugees are fit to live in Australia.

Senator Brown says the system needs to be changed.

"The last thing the Rudd Government should do is leave ASIO to be the arbiter of who comes into this country and who doesn't, to quote John Howard who gave such extraordinary powers to ASIO to determine the lives of Australians generally," Senator Brown said.

He says major determinations made by the spy agency should be scrutinised by a parliamentary committee.

"That scrutiny must be there. We must never in a democracy leave ASIO to be making decisions in such matters without there being careful scrutiny by the parliament itself," he said.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says Mr Rudd has created the problem "by caving in to the would-be unauthorised arrivals on the Oceanic Viking".
-ABC

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76 asylum seekers intercepted

LATEST NEWS: 04/01/2010 @ 1530 WAST

The Federal Government says another boat carrying asylum seekers has been intercepted in Australia's northern waters.

The latest boat was detected yesterday about three nautical miles north of Christmas Island.

The Government says there are 76 passengers and four crew on board the vessel.

They have been taken to Christmas Island for health, security and identity checks.
-ABC

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