as posted here
SHANE MCLEOD: It's been revealed that a fifth Sri Lankan refugee being held on Christmas Island has been assessed as a threat to Australia's security.
Earlier today the Federal Government confirmed it had refused visas for three men and one woman. They were among 78 Sri Lankans part of the stand-off on the Australian customs ship the Oceanic Viking last year.
The Immigration Minister Chris Evans has today revealed another man had arrived on a boat months earlier.
Senator Evans won't reveal why the intelligence gathering organisation ASIO believes the group is a security threat.
The Government now faces the problem of finding another country that will take the five Tamils who have already been deemed to be genuine refugees. Therefore they can't be sent back to Sri Lanka.
It's led one outspoken Liberal MP to declare that Christmas Island will become Australia's Guantanamo Bay.
From Canberra Samantha Hawley reports.
SAMANTHA HAWLEY: The four men and one woman were found by the UNHCR to be genuine refugees. But now on Christmas Island Australia says they're a threat to national security.
CHRIS EVANS: And as a result they do not qualify for visas to enter Australia and they won't be entering Australia. They'll be detained on Christmas Island.
SAMANTHA HAWLEY: The Immigration Minister Chris Evans says the group includes three men and a married couple with two children.
CHRIS EVANS: But obviously we make appropriate arrangements for children not to have them in a detention centre but there will be appropriate detention arrangements.
SAMANTHA HAWLEY: One of the men arrived in Australia by boat in the middle of last year. The four others had been on the customs ship the Oceanic Viking for more than a month and recently arrived on Christmas Island as part of the deal done between Australia and Indonesia to end that stand-off.
They were assessed by ASIO while in detention in Indonesia but Senator Evans has defended the decision to bring them to Christmas Island.
CHRIS EVANS: Well we thought given the timeframes agreed with the Indonesian Government that it was best that we take them to Christmas Island, detain them there and work on resolving their cases in the longer term there.
REPORTER: So it was the special deal that got them here?
CHRIS EVANS: No, there was an agreement with the Indonesian Government about managing that case load and we made it clear that we would take lead responsibility in those matters.
When these people were found to be of security concern we determined to take them to Christmas Island, detain them there and work with the UNHCR on long term resolution of their cases.
SAMANTHA HAWLEY: Senator Evans won't reveal any details of ASIO's findings against the group or how it gathered the information except to say they failed a character check. And he says he doesn't know whether any other Sri Lankans on Christmas Island could also be found to be a risk.
CHRIS EVANS: We always understood the possibility that persons on the boat would fail their security assessment. Until you've done the health, identity and security checks you cannot be sure.
SAMANTHA HAWLEY: Liberal MP Wilson Tuckey argues that was his point last year when he was widely condemned for saying there could be terrorists on board unlawful boats.
WILSON TUCKEY: I made the comment that maybe one in a hundred might be in this category of security risk. The fact of life is we're now at four and if you like five persons from the 78 that were on that vessel.
SAMANTHA HAWLEY: He says if those numbers continue Christmas Island will take on a whole new role.
WILSON TUCKEY: That sounds like America's Guantanamo Bay to me.
SAMANTHA HAWLEY: The Prime Minister had called for Wilson Tuckey's sacking for his comments last year but the Opposition frontbencher Joe Hockey says Mr Tuckey was right.
JOE HOCKEY: More fool Kevin Rudd for coming out and saying that you know Wilson Tuckey should apologise. I think Wilson's had a win there.
SAMANTHA HAWLEY: Because they have been found to be refugees the group can't be sent back to Sri Lanka and if they don't leave voluntarily the Government will have to find a third country to take them.
CHRIS EVANS: There's no doubt that these are difficult cases when you find people who have been found by the UNHCR to be refugees but who are then unable to return to their country of origin. They are particularly complex and difficult cases.
SAMANTHA HAWLEY: Sara Nathan from the Australian Tamil Congress says the five Tamils should be treated in accordance with Australian law.
SARA NATHAN: This issue has come from something that there could be a potential security risk. We need to put this through the High Court and to see if it is actually a security threat or not.
Because Tamils have been in Australia for over 30 years. There are about 50,000 of us here. None of us have posed a security threat at all to Australia or for that matter to any Western country. They should be innocent until proven guilty.
SAMANTHA HAWLEY: She wants ASIO to publicly release its findings.
SHANE MCLEOD: Samantha Hawley reporting.
as posted here
- Four Oceanic Viking Tamils refused visas
- Determined a threat to national security
- Breaking News: What's happening now?
FOUR of the Tamil asylum-seekers rescued by the Oceanic Viking and offered a special deal by the Rudd Government will be refused visas after ASIO determined them a threat to national security.
The government lobbied furiously to resettle the 78 Sri Lankans swiftly following their stand-off aboard the Australian Customs boat, but The Australian revealed today that four of the Tamils being held at Christmas Island have been issued with adverse security assessments by Australia's chief domestic security agency, ASIO.
In a further complication for authorities struggling to manage a fresh wave of boat-borne asylum-seekers, it is believed one of the four is a woman who travelled to Australia in the company of her two young children.
The situation presents a conundrum for the Government, which cannot return the four to Sri Lanka without exposing them to potential harm from the Sri Lankan Government, which in May crushed the decades-old Tamil insurgency with a comprehensive military offensive.
Australia would also be in breach of its legal obligations if it returned the four, as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees has designated all 78 of the Sri Lankans as legal refugees. However, people subject to adverse security assessments are by law ineligible for an Australian visa, which means the four have no hope of coming to the Australian mainland.
Other countries will also be highly reluctant to take them now that Australia has deemed them a security risk.
The four were part of a group of 16 Tamils who flew from Indonesia to Australia in the final days of last year, amid concerns about their background.
They had been held in Tanjung Pinang for about a month after agreeing to leave the Oceanic Viking.
On December 29, six of the Sri Lankans, including the four who have been issued adverse security assessments, flew via charter aircraft from Indonesia directly to Christmas Island.
The next day, 10 of their fellow passengers flew on a commercial flight into Australia, where they joined other Oceanic Viking passengers, who had flown in before Christmas.
Of the 78 rescued, 44 are in a UN transit facility in Romania awaiting resettlement in the US and Canada, 18 have come to Australia and 16 remain in Tanjung Pinang.
The revelations pose new questions about the Rudd government's handling of the stand-off and whether the decision to offer a special deal to leave the boat was driven by security fears.
Yesterday, ASIO refused to comment on the matter.
However, an Immigration Department spokesman, Sandi Logan, confirmed adverse security assessments had been issued.
"The passengers from the Oceanic Viking who received adverse security assessments will not be granted permanent visas to resettle in Australia," Mr Logan said.
"They are being held in secure and appropriate detention arrangements while Australia continues to explore resettlement options or they choose to depart voluntarily."
Mr Logan confirmed Australia would not seek to deport the four to Sri Lanka, acknowledging it would be a breach of the UN Refugee Convention.
Read more about the Oceanic Viking asylum-seekers refused visas in The Australian.
