By Max Lane
There is still no end to the government's threats to deport the 1358 East Timorese refugees in Australia, despite a court ruling in their favour. Following the May 2 Federal Court decision to set aside a decision of the Refugee Review Tribunal that East Timorese refugee Jong Kim Koe was not a refugee, immigration minister Philip Ruddock announced that the government would consider appealing to the High Court or even legislating to make the decision ineffective.
The court decided that the tribunal erred in considering only the fact of Jong's formal entitlement to Portuguese citizenship but not considering how real such nominal protection might be. Jong and most of the other refugees have no real ties with Portugal, which has said it will not accept East Timorese deported against their will.
Ruddock's statement indicates that the government intends to continue pressuring the East Timorese refugees to leave Australia. Pressure is also coming from the Suharto dictatorship.
Indonesian foreign minister Ali Alatas, in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald on May 7, claimed that the East Timorese seeking refugee status in Australia had arrived under false pretences on tourist or short-stay visas. He warned that if Australia were too "lenient", it could "be seized on as a precedent by successive waves of people trying to get in".
Many of the refugees have been in Australia for two years or more and now face another long period of uncertainty. While they are waiting for their cases to be heard, many are unable to get proper jobs or have access to social services.
Refugees whose case is still being heard by the Immigration Department receive a small government allowance paid through the Red Cross. This is not enough for them to be able to live independently.
Once the Immigration Department rules against a refugee and the person appeals to the Refugee Review Tribunal, he or she ceases to receive any further government assistance from the Red Cross. The refugees are left without any source of livelihood at all.
According to Sister Kath O'Connor, speaking to a meeting of Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor (ASIET) on May 7, it is not uncommon to find 15 East Timorese living in a two-room flat.
Sister Kath is the convener of the Christian Sanctuary Network, a national network of individuals and organisations which have indicated willingness to give sanctuary to any East Timorese the Australian government attempts to deport.
"There are about 10,000 members of the network now, representing a broad cross section of the community, ranging from churches to trade unions and many concerned individuals." Sister Kath emphasised that all the people concerned were prepared to face the six-month prison sentence for hiding deportees.
The Sanctuary Network, the East Timorese community and many of its supporters are campaigning to press the government to create a humanitarian visa category and issue such visas to the East Timorese. (A similar decision was taken in regard to Chinese citizens who wanted to remain in Australia after the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.)
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jose Ramos Horta has called on the Australian government to grant all the refugees five-year resident visas. Horta stated that he was optimistic the East Timor situation would be resolved within that time.
A week of activity in support of the East Timorese liberation movement and the struggle for democracy in Indonesia is planned for May 17-24. One of the key demands of the week is to allow the refugees to stay.