Australia transfers 41 asylum seekers to Sri Lanka Navy mid-sea

Tuesday, 8 July 2014 00:06 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

41 to be handed over to CID or Police: Navy
Navy receives asylum seekers off the coast of Galle
Everyone on board “safe and accounted for”: Aussie Immigration Minister
Scott Morrison in town tomorrow for handover of boats to curb human smuggling ops

By Dharisha Bastians After days of uncertainty and reports about mid-sea refugee screenings, the Australian Government yesterday confirmed that 41 asylum seekers had been returned to Sri Lanka. The Sri Lanka Navy confirmed it had received the asylum seekers on Sunday (6) morning in a mid-sea transfer off the southern coast of Galle. “The Australian authorities handed the asylum seekers to the Navy mid-sea, off the southern coast,” the Navy Spokesman told the the Daily FT. He added that the Navy would hand over the 41 people to law enforcement authorities in Galle for investigations. “We may hand them over to the CID or to the Police,” Commander Warnakulasuriya explained. Refugee Advocate and Human Rights Lawyer Lakshan Dias said the 41 asylum seekers were to be produced before the magistrate in Galle yesterday. “But now they will be kept overnight at the Boosa camp and produced in court tomorrow, according to Galle Harbour Police,” the lawyer told the Daily FT. Dias said Australia’s conduct with regard to returning the asylum seekers was “distressing”. “Australia is offering a bad example to all states across Asia about how to treat asylum claims,” Dias opined. After a week of silence from Australia’s Tony Abbott Government on the capture of two boats, Immigration Minister Scott Morrison confirmed yesterday that the asylum seekers boat had been intercepted northwest of Australia, carrying 37 Sinhalese and four Tamils from Sri Lanka. In a statement, Morrison, who is due to visit Sri Lanka later this week, said the 41 people on board were scanned by teleconference at sea before being transferred to the Sri Lankan Navy. He declined to comment on the whereabouts of another reported 153 asylum seekers that had been on a second boat intercepted by the Australian authorities at the same time, reportedly carrying Tamils from India. Last week, the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR expressed “profound concern” about Australia’s handling of Tamil asylum seekers and said their forced return would be inconsistent with “fundamental refugee protection principles”. In his statement the Australian Immigration Minister said that one of the Sinhalese on board may have had a case for seeking asylum, but had opted to be handed back to Sri Lanka after being told they would be sent to Manus Island or Nauru for offshore processing. Morrison added all of the people on board were “safe and accounted for” and the boat was not in distress. “This is how you stop the boats. This is how it has to be done because this is what works,” Minister Morrison said. The Abbott Administration in Australia has come in for strong criticism by opposition parties, refugee advocates and human rights activists for screening the asylum seekers mid sea and using only four questions to determine their status. Australian Immigration Minister Morrison arrives in Sri Lanka tomorrow to attend a ceremony to hand over two Australian Customs bay class patrol boats that have been gifted to the Sri Lankan Government to curb human smuggling operations. Australia’s High Court temporarily blocks asylum seeker transfer to Sri Lanka Reuters: The Australian High Court has issued a temporary injunction preventing the return of a second boat of more than 150 asylum seekers from Sri Lanka, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) said on Monday. The interim injunction will prevent the Australian Government from returning the 153 asylum seekers until Tuesday (8) afternoon, the broadcaster said, by which time the High Court will issue further guidance. Earlier in the day, Immigration Minister Scott Morrison confirmed 41 asylum seekers have been handed over to Sri Lanka’s military after being processed at sea, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation said. Sri Lankan Police said on Monday that those returned would be charged with leaving the country illegally and those found guilty faced “rigorous imprisonment”. But Morrison refused to discuss the whereabouts of another 153 asylum seekers on another boat believed to be facing the same fate, the ABC reported. During a radio interview before the injunction was granted on Monday, Morrison dismissed critics of the Government’s policy of handing asylum seekers to the Sri Lankan Navy at sea. “I know that there’s a lot of people out there, Ray, who feel uncomfortable about elements of this, and I get that and I understand that is from a motive of, which is very positive and very compassionate, but this is how you stop the boats. This is how it has to be done, because this is what works and that’s why we’re sticking to it. I mean, I was there in the Parliament when people got up and wept and all of those things, now that was the daily reality that I was dealing with when I was a shadow minister and to be fair to the government and the ministers that they were dealing with and there was no way I was going to allow this to continue on our watch and that’s what we’ve done and it’s a tough job but it’s getting done,” Morrison told 2GB’s Ray Hadley in Sydney. Australia’s High Court will hear refugee advocates arguing to extend the interim injunction on Tuesday (8).