Vol. 73/No. 20      May 25, 2009

The boat exploded April 16 off the northwest coast of Australia. Five died and others suffered severe burns. Nineteen boats have arrived in Australian waters since last September, carrying 711 refugees, mostly from Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.

Many Afghans escaping the war in their country, Tamils fleeing oppression by the government in Sri Lanka, and other immigrants make their way to Malaysia and from there cross the Malacca Straits to Java, Indonesia, seeking refugee status. Frustrated with years of waiting, some set out by boat to Australia. Hundreds have perished making this dangerous sea trip.

Survivors of the April 16 explosion were ferried by two Australian navy patrol boats and then by air to hospitals in Broome, Darwin, and Perth.

As news of the explosion broke, West Australian Liberal premier Colin Barnett claimed the refugees had deliberately doused the boat in petrol. This speculation echoed the “children overboard” scandal in 2001, when the government of former prime minister John Howard of the Liberal Party falsely claimed that refugees had thrown their children into the sea.

Farad Popal, president of the Afghan Community Association of Western Australia, told the Australian that some refugees held in Perth said the explosion happened after the crewmen spilled fuel while refueling the engine.

The Liberal opposition has claimed Labor’s “soft” policies on asylum-seekers are encouraging many to make the perilous voyage.

But Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd insists his immigration policy is “hardline, tough and targeted.” He denounced “people-smugglers” as “the vilest form of human life.”

Under Howard, Canberra paid for internment camps for refugees on the Pacific islands of Manus, in Papua New Guinea, and Nauru. Rudd ended that last year and asylum-seekers arriving by boat are now detained on Christmas Island, 1,600 miles from Australia in the Indian Ocean.

Special visas granted to asylum-seekers are now permanent, not temporary, and no longer discriminate against refugees who arrive by sea.

Canberra is increasing collaboration with the Indonesian, Malaysian, and Sri Lankan governments to try to criminalize “people-smuggling.” The Australian embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, closest to the Afghan border, is closed to refugee applications.

Meanwhile, as part of the growing imperialist war in Afghanistan, Canberra plans to send another 450 soldiers as part of the U.S.-led occupation forces there. The Australian government already has some 1,100 troops in Afghanistan.  
 
 
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