Wednesday 13 January 2010

Immigration Department warns Federal Government to start processing asylum-seekers on mainland

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Immigration Department warns Federal Government to start processing asylum-seekers on mainland

Steve Lewis, Ben Packham
From:Herald Sun
January 14, 2010 12:00AM

An asylum seeker hangs out washing on a Hills Hoist on Christmas Island. Picture: Andy Tyndall Source: Herald Sun

EXCLUSIVE: THE Rudd Government has been warned to start processing asylum-seekers on the mainland or risk further riots and disturbances at Christmas Island's detention centre.

In a major challenge to the Government's border protection policies, the Immigration Department has given high-level advice that conditions at the frontline centre are close to boiling point.

As Christmas Island approaches 95 per cent capacity, the department is warning of the potential for riots following last year's melee involving Tamil and Afghan detainees.

And with intelligence agencies warning Canberra to brace for further boatloads of detainees, the Government is being urged to open spill-over facilities at Darwin.

It is understood Immigration Minister Chris Evans received the departmental warning about the deteriorating situation on Christmas Island in the past month.

The fifth unauthorised boat to enter Australian waters this year was intercepted on Wednesday, placing further strain on the crowded detention centre.

Amid growing signs of crisis, Cabinet's border security committee met in Canberra on Wednesday.

The PM's national security adviser Duncan Lewis and Australian Secret Intelligence Service chief Nick Warner are understood to have attended the meeting.

It followed the admission by the Government that four Tamil asylum-seekers were brought to Christmas Island despite failing ASIO security checks. They joined a fifth Tamil on Christmas Island who also failed security checks.

Immigration Minister Chris Evans said: "This was an ordinary meeting, but we were dealing with all those issues as you'd expect us to."

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott wrote to the holidaying Mr Rudd, demanding an "urgent briefing" on the security breach.

He also accused Mr Rudd of covering up the adverse security assessments and placing the nation at risk.

The latest arrivals pushed the number of detainees on Christmas Island to 1766, leaving just 54 spare beds.

But 53 detainees were due to leave the centre, including 22 whose visas had been granted. Another five were taken for medical treatment in Perth, three agreed to be voluntarily returned home, and 23 Indonesian crewmen were to be relocated to Darwin.

"We've still got some spare capacity at Christmas Island and we've been expanding that to meet demand," Senator Evans told Perth radio.

"I've always made clear: we have a detention centre at Darwin with capacity for 500 that is purpose-built and been used in the past.

"If we need to do that for the final stages of processing (we can) ... They'll be treated as offshore entry arrivals."

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Cabinet border security committee meets as more boatpeople arrives

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Cabinet border security committee meets as more boatpeople arrives

Samantha Maiden, Online political editor
From:The Australian
January 13, 2010 4:30PM

THE border security committee of cabinet met today in Canberra amid a deepening row over Kevin Rudd's decision to allow four asylum-seekers who ASIO deemed a security threat to be flown to Christmas Island.

The meeting followed the interception of another boatload of arrivals near Christmas Island carrying 42 suspected asylum-seekers, the fifth boat for the year.

National Security Adviser Duncan Lewis attended the meeting in the Prime Minister's office as the government confirmed another boatload of asylum-seekers had been detected near Christmas Island.

Immigration Minister Chris Evans confirmed the meeting but would not discuss the agenda, arguing it was a routine meeting.

“We are just managing what is hopefully a temporary peak in arrivals,” Senator Evans said.

He also conceded that Australia may have to activate a contingency plan to transport asylum-seekers from the offshore detention centre on Christmas Island to the mainland. There were 1724 people at Christmas Island - its capacity is 1820 detainees - with another 42 to arrive for processing. However, the immigration department said some people had been granted visas and would soon be transferred to the mainland.

“We've still got some capacity at Christmas Island. I've always made clear we've got a detention centre at Darwin with a capacity for 500 that's purpose built,” Senator Evans told Perth Radio 6PR.

“If we need to we will use that for the final stages for processing. But people will be taken to Christmas Island and they will be treated as offshore entry arrivals and all the legal structures that go around that.”

The cabinet committee was established last year to tackle the recent surge in asylum-seekers arriving by boat and has a $2.8 million budget to source advice and support for the committee to respond to “the resurgent maritime people smuggling threat”.

Chaired by Senator Evans, it includes Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith, Defence Minister John Faulkner, Attorney-General Robert McClelland and Mr Lewis.

The Prime Minister, who remains on holidays in Tasmania, did not attend the meeting.

Earlier, the opposition accused the Rudd government of committing a “grievous security breach” by sending four asylum-seekers deemed a threat by ASIO to Christmas Island.

Yesterday Senator Evans confirmed the decision to transfer the Tamils by charter plane to honour an agreement with Indonesia to end the Oceanic Viking standoff.

Opposition customs spokesman Michael Keenan said today it was difficult to understand “why the reaction of the Labor Government to the news that these four pose a security risk was to charter a plane to go and collect them from Indonesia and bring them to Australia”.

“Now why any Australian Government would commit such a grievous security breach is very difficult to know,” Mr Keenan told ABC Radio.

“It's really an extraordinary set of circumstances and it's the final calamity that's been associated with Labor's failed border protection policies.”

The Rudd government confirmed this morning that HMAS Bathurst, operating under the control of Border Protection Command, intercepted another vessel at 2.24am (AEDT) about five nautical miles north of Christmas Island.

In a statement today the government said there were 42 people on board. It's the fifth vessel to be detected this year, pushing the detention centre to the brink capacity.

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ASIO's assessments can destroy lives

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ASIO's assessments can destroy lives

PAMELA CURR

January 13, 2010 - 6:23AM

Comments 1

Four asylum seekers from the Oceanic Viking face more uncertainty after an adverse assessment from ASIO, which cannot be examined. Photo: Yuli Seperi

The finding that four people from the Oceanic Viking have received an adverse security assessment from ASIO may gird the loins of the anti-asylum seeker sector in Australia. However, in the absence of ASIO providing reasons as to why they have made such assessments, it is worth looking at previous decisions in similar circumstances. The consequences of these decisions are so serious and so deleterious to the individuals involved that a clear-eyed review of the efficacy of past ASIO indictments is called for in the interests of justice.

ASIO and the Government have vigorously defended their right to secrecy in these matters through the courts. It is also worth noting that adverse ASIO assessments are rare occurrences. In 2007-2008 out of 89,290 assessments there were no adverse findings while in 2006-2007, there were seven adverse assessments including that of US activist Scott Parkin and a Guantanamo Bay filmmaker. We also note that ASIO got a clean bill of health for their activities during the Doctor Mohamed Haneef case.

In 2005 two Iraqi asylum seekers were granted refugee status after being interdicted and taken to Nauru in 2001. These two men then languished on Nauru until one man became suicidal. Such was the concern as to his condition that he was flown to Brisbane to a psychiatric hospital for treatment. I visited him in this no-security establishment where most patients were middle-class sufferers of depression and anorexia. Mohammad could easily have escaped if he wished or if he indeed was a "national security threat" as designated by ASIO. It was clear to even the most suspicious that he was no threat so quietly without reasons given, his adverse decision was lifted. He was granted a visa and now lives in Australia struggling with the effects of incarceration on Nauru and the treatment he received.

The second man, another Mohammad, held on to his sanity long enough that he remained on Nauru alone while the cards were shuffled to get rid of this embarrassment to our noble immigration and security forces. Eventually he was exported to Sweden where he too struggles with the remnants of a life all but destroyed by the brutal politics of a dark time in Australian history. Needless to say the proof is in the pudding here also in that this Mohammad, like his friend, has not caused a moment's concern to the security agencies of either Sweden or Australia.

So how does ASIO make these assessments? This is a no-go area clouded in secrecy but we do know that by their own admissions in more honest days they have corroborated with overseas agencies who have provided dubious information. In one instance a man spent two years locked up on evidence that had more to do with payback than justice.

I sat through an ASIO interview with a man released from Nauru after four years incarceration. This was his second interview and the reasons for it were never disclosed. He was summonsed to the Immigration Department in Melbourne as were many post Nauru Iraqis on a supposedly immigration matter. There we were shuffled off to a side room where he was asked all over again about the torture and imprisonment he had endured in Iraq before fleeing to Australia. What astonished me was that ASIO and Immigration knew as early as 2002 that this man had been comprehensively tortured by Saddam Hussein's men. They had corroborated evidence of the hanging upside down on huge fans for hours each day, of the hanging by arms turned backwards, which dislodges the shoulders causing exquisite pain. Yet they still held this man and many others on Nauru for years despite their own guidelines that tortured persons would not be detained longer than necessary.

ASIO have been complicit in the Australian Government's asylum seeker deterrence policy in the past so why would they not continue this co-operation when the Sri Lankan embassy has been so shrill in its claims that all Tamils coming to Australia are either Tamil Tiger terrorists or potential terrorists. Where, if not from the Sri Lankan embassy, are ASIO getting their information?

Australia has funded the security cameras in Colombo airport to detect any potential Tamil asylum seekers from leaving while simultaneously funding the Sri Lankan Navy to prevent people escaping by boat. Indeed in December the Sri Lankan Navy took their responsibility to deter so seriously that they shot two asylum seekers, killing one as he struggled into a fishing boat.

That ASIO has produced adverse security assessments against three men, one woman and her two children is not to be unexpected. Whether these assessments are valid or accurate is unlikely to be tested.

Pamela Curr is campaign co-ordinator at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre.

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Refugee family faces indefinite detention

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Refugee family faces indefinite detention

YUKO NARUSHIMA

January 13, 2010

A FAMILY of refugees from the Oceanic Viking faces indefinite detention after the Government flew their mother to Christmas Island knowing she was a security risk.

The Tamil woman was among four adult refugees involved in the customs boat stand-off to fail security checks by ASIO. Her two young children were also on the journey.

Yesterday, Immigration Minister Chris Evans said all were ineligible to live in Australia. As genuine refugees, however, they cannot be deported to possible harm in Sri Lanka.

''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,'' he said.

The children's father is held on the island with them. He was also rejected for residency on security grounds after sailing separately to Australia six months ago.

The Government will not say if the family is suspected of links to the Tamil Tigers.

While Tamil supporters and refugee lawyers called on ASIO to release the grounds for their rejection yesterday, the Opposition accused the Government of jeopardising Australia's security.

''They knowingly brought people deemed to be a national security threat from a third country into Australia," Opposition spokesman for justice and customs Michael Keenan said.

"They have betrayed the trust of the Australian people and threatened the integrity of our border protection system."

The adverse security findings further complicate the Government's assurance of fast resettlement for the Oceanic Vikings refugees.

While they preclude resettlement in Australia, the Government cannot deport the group to Sri Lanka because all were found by the UN to be in genuine fear of persecution.

Senator Evans said their situation was undesirable but was not a first.

Under the previous government, two Iraqi men were held on Nauru for years after failing security checks.

''This Government has been very committed to trying to end that kind of long-term indefinite detention, but there's no doubt these are difficult cases,'' he said.

Immigration lawyer John Gibson said ASIO should release the basis on which they concluded the people were a security threat.

''This is one of the opaque parts of the process that is currently beyond scrutiny,'' he said.

''These people have been in Indonesia since 2005 and some, I gather, have been there longer. In other words they haven't been in contact with the LTTE [Tamil Tigers] and they are not recent combatants. I have real concerns as to the basis on which they've been designated by ASIO in this way.''

The Australian Tamil Congress said ASIO had to show it had not taken the word of the Sri Lankan Government in forming the assessment.

The Sri Lankan Government quashed the Tamil secession movement last year after decades of civil war.

ASIO declined to comment on its processes last night.

■ Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has described relations with India as excellent after his counterpart in New Delhi warned that a failure to deal with attacks on Indians in Australia would seriously damage ties between the countries.

Mr Smith returned to work from holidays on Monday and immediately phoned the Indian External Affairs Minister, S.M. Krishna, to express condolences over the death of Indian student Nitin Garg and provide assurances about the Victorian police investigation.

''We both agreed this was an issue we did not want to disturb or get in the way of what the External Affairs Minister described as an excellent relationship,'' Mr Smith said yesterday.

With JONATHAN PEARLMAN

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ASIO knew Tamil asylum seekers were a threat to national security before they were transferred to Christmas Island

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ASIO knew Tamil asylum seekers were a threat to national security before they were transferred to Christmas Island

Tuesday, January 12th 2010, 12:57 pm UTC

AUSTRALIA knew that ASIO had determined four Tamil asylum seekers from the Oceanic Viking were a threat to national security before they were transported to Christmas Island.

And Immigration Minister Chris Evans has today revealed the decision to bring them to an Australian-run detention centre anyway was largely as a result to honour an agreement with Indonesia to “manage the caseload.”

Senator Evans has today confirmed there was a fifth Tamil being held by Immigration in the Australian detention who failed the security assessment test.

The revelation follows The Australian’s exclusive report today that four of the Tamil asylum seekers rescued by the Oceanic Viking were a threat to national security.

“We thought given the timeframes agreed with the Indonesian government that it was best that we took them to Christmas Island and detain them and work on resolving their cases in the longer term there,” Senator Evans said.

Asked if it was the “special deal” that forced Australia to take the five Tamils who were a threat to national security, Senator Evans said it was not.

“No there was an agreement with the Indonesian government about managing that case load,” he said.

“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.”

Senator Evans said it had been clear for some time that because many Tamil Tiger operatives had fled the country it was likely the possibility that people who may be of interest to security agencies could be among the asylum seekers.

The five Tamils have been declared refugees and as a result cannot be returned to Sri Lanka but because they have failed the security test they will be refused entry to Australia.

Australia will now work with the United Nations High Commission to resettle them elsewhere, with Senator Evans confirmed it was a particularly complex case.

“There is an additional person… who was found by our security agencies to have not met the public interest criteria. It is the case that this man is the spouse of the mother of the two children who was on board the Oceanic Viking,” Senator Evans said.

Senator Evans said the family would be held “appropriately” on Christmas Island and the children would not be held behind razor wire but they will remain in detention.

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Wednesday 13 January 2010