BY SARAH STEPHEN
On March 12, an immigration department media release announced that the Australian and Iranian governments had signed a memorandum of understanding to "promote the legal and mutually beneficial movement of people between the two countries". But while the agreement opens up some more options for legal travel, it also enshrines a commitment to deport Iranian asylum seekers.
In a disturbing new development, the press release said that the memorandum includes "arrangements for the handling of those [asylum seekers] who do not volunteer to return".
The Australian government has been frustrated for some time with its inability to force the return of Iranian asylum seekers. Immigration minister Philip Ruddock told Sydney radio 2GB on January 16 that "these people are sitting on their hands and refusing to volunteer."
The announcement came at the same time as 190 Iranian asylum seekers held in Australia's detention centres protested the Australian government's approval of a government delegation [from the Islamic fundamentalist Husseini group] tour of detention centres.
Victorian Greens refugee spokesperson Pamela Curr reported that, on March 12, the delegation was at Villawood "handing out forms to the Iranians asking them to sign with names, addresses and family details, plus three names of people who know them in Iran. [They] are very concerned that Australian immigration officials would expose them to these representatives of the government from which they have fled. They turned their backs on them, refusing to talk."
On March 14, 63 Iranians in Port Hedland went on a hunger strike and issued a media release calling on refugee-rights groups to condemn the agreement signed by the two countries. It said: "We fled from the inhuman theocratic regime of Iran .. Now Australia has become a trap for us. It invites Iranian authorities to make deals about us and lets them easily have tours among detention centres... And finally we will be delivered to our enemy like sheep to [a] wolf. We call [on] your help for stopping it."
Many of the asylum seekers have been in detention for more than three years, and they call on the Australian people to help them apply for settlement in a third country. [Check the full text at <http://www.safecom.org/iranians.htm>]
A refugee supporter from Port Augusta who regularly visits Baxter detainees told Green Left Weekly that Iranian detainees have been "thrown into great depression, uncertainty and panic" upon hearing news of the Australia-Iran agreement. Like many refugee supporters, this activist didn't want her name mentioned for fear of having her visiting privileges withdrawn by detention centre management.
According to this supporter, some detainees don't believe the memorandum includes provisions for the forced return of asylum seekers. She argued that if it does, it would open the way for countries all around the world to start returning Iranian asylum seekers. There are 9000 Iranian asylum seekers in Germany and 6000 in Holland.
Iranian embassy staff have denied that any agreement has been reached with the Australian government. Detainees think Ruddock's claim may simply be a cruel bluff to frighten them into agreeing to return voluntarily.
Iran is second only to China in executing the most number of citizens. In 2002, the number of people officially executed was 474, with the number of secret executions — most of them political prisoners — allegedly far greater.
Despite the well-known brutality of the Iranian regime, the Australian government is determined to treat Iranian asylum seekers' cries for help with the same callous contempt it has shown to refugees from Afghanistan and Iraq.
From Green Left Weekly, March 26, 2003.
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