Vol. 74/No. 20      May 24, 2010

The measures were protested by 100 people outside the Villawood detention center in Sydney April 11, which countered a small rightist rally staged by the Australian Protection Party. A similar counterprotest of 200 took place in Melbourne April 10.

A march and rally of 200 in downtown Sydney April 30 protested the reopening of the Curtin detention center. Curtin, on an air base near Derby in the far north of Western Australia, was closed in 2002 following protests by inmates against overcrowding.

Of the more than 2,000 refugees currently held on Christmas Island, which is in the Indian Ocean south of Indonesia, 80 percent are Afghans—predominantly Hazaras—or Sri Lankans, all of whom are Tamils.

With Rudd’s announcement, all future asylum seekers from Sri Lanka arriving by boat will be taken to Christmas Island but not processed for at least three months. Afghans will have to wait six months.

The Rudd government deployed 80 federal police to the island following the announcement of the asylum freeze. A week earlier, protests were staged by Iraqis who faced deportation after applications for asylum had been rejected.

Some 200 Tamils protesting on a boat held in the port of Merak in Indonesia for the last six months reportedly agreed April 18 to be taken to an Australian-funded detention center at Tanjung Pinang near Singapore. Their boat had been intercepted by the Indonesian navy, at the Australian government’s request, last October while on its way to Christmas Island. The Tamils had been refusing to leave the ship, demanding asylum in Australia.

The Royal Australian Navy currently has seven patrol boats deployed in Operation Resolute, patrolling the waters off the northwest coast of Australia for boats of refugees, and also for Indonesian fishing boats.

Around 150 Indonesians, mainly impoverished fishermen, are currently in Australian jails facing long mandatory sentences for crewing the small boats bringing asylum seekers to Australian waters. Under so-called “people smuggling” laws, the minimum sentence for first-time offenders is a five-year jail term with a three-year non-parole period. Those convicted over a boat carrying five or more people face a maximum of 20 years imprisonment, a fine of $220,000 or both.
 
 
Related articles:
U.S. capitalist owners need immigrant labor
California: Farm workers rally against racism  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home