Sarah Stephen
When seven asylum seekers from West Timor waded ashore near the Western Australian Aboriginal community of Kalumburu on November 5, immigration minister Amanda Vanstone declared that they were fishing, not seeking asylum. This fiction was maintained for 10 days by the immigration department (DIMIA).
This is the first boat carrying asylum seekers to be intercepted in Australian waters in two years. The last one, the Hao Kiet, with 53 Vietnamese asylum seekers, arrived near Port Hedland in July 2003. This group was held on Christmas Island for two years before being granted temporary protection visas in July after a public campaign.
Immigration officials transferred the West Timorese group — two babies, a teenager, a woman and three men — to Darwin, hiding them in the Parap Village Apartments. DIMIA had planned to deport the group, but refugee advocates exposed their maltreatment and demanded they be given legal help to make an asylum claim. Refugee advocate Pamela Curr said on November 21 that they had been allocated a government migration agent and that "Until their names are known no independent person is able to speak to them".
On November 17, the asylum seekers were taken to Christmas Island in violation of their right under the migration act to have their asylum claims considered within the migration zone, with full access to legal representation and the courts.
In April, a spokesperson for Vanstone said the detention centre would only be "used for unauthorised arrivals who arrive in areas that are excised from the migration zone and there's no plans to change that".
Author and refugee advocate Tony Kevin slammed the removal of the asylum seekers to Christmas Island. Speaking at a Green Left Weekly forum on November 22 he said, "If they had not insisted on making refugee claims, they would be back home by now. Forget that they landed on Australian soil that had not been conveniently excised. Forget that there was a recent promise that children would not again be put in detention except for short periods while identities are checked.
"We are told the family of four (father, mother, two children) will be allowed out soon to house detention on Christmas Island. Three other single men will stay locked up alone, presumably for as long as they pursue their refugee claims. We now have another case like Aladdin Sisalem, who was locked up alone for years on Manus Island.
"Nothing has changed in DIMIA. The so-called new broom of [department head] Andrew Metcalfe sweeps human lives around in the same cruel way. And there is the same arbitrary decision-making, the same flouting of laws and solemn governmental undertakings."
The family was released into house detention on November 22.
Refugee advocate Kaye Bernard told the November 23 Age, "Everyone accepts detention makes people sick. These three men are being discriminated against simply on the basis of their gender. If they do not pose a threat to Australian security, why should they be held in a prison?" She said a social worker had tried to visit the men, but had been refused because her name was not on their visitor list.
Greens Senator Kerry Nettle said on November 21 that, "To re-open Christmas Island for seven people must have cost many thousands of taxpayers' dollars. The government initially told us these people were not seeking protection and it turns out they are. This move appears to be all about hiding an embarrassment from the public."
From Green Left Weekly, November 30, 2005.
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