BY PIP HINMAN
Some of the refugees rescued by the MV Tampa last August have been given refugee status and are being resettled in Australia.
After 10 months in prison camps on Nauru and on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea, 480 Iraqis, 56 Afghans and 41 people of other nationalities from a total of 1379 asylum seekers have been deemed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to be refugees.
Despite saying none of the Tampa refugees would ever set foot on Australian soil, Prime Minister John Howard now says Australia will take its "fair share". That apparently amounts to around 100 people, or just 17%. On July 30, the government announced that 60 refugees had already arrived in Australia. Immigration minister Philip Ruddock argued that the lack of publicity was to protect the refugees' privacy.
Lisa Macdonald of the Socialist Alliance told Green Left Weekly that the refugees' arrival from Nauru and PNG has again highlighted the cruelty of the government's "Pacific solution". "These poor people have been accused of being less than human [in the 'children overboard' scandal], they have been imprisoned for 10 months in disease-ridden camps and denied legal assistance. Now, only a few have been declared 'genuine' refugees. Not only is the $500 million or so that is being wasted on this non-solution an outrage, but so are the lengths to which this government will go to dehumanise people fleeing war and oppression. It's a racist policy and it has go", Macdonald said.
August 26 will mark the first anniversary of the MV Tampa captain Arne Rinnan's courageous defiance of the Australian government. Activists are gearing up to make August 26 an anniversary the government will not forget.
A range of networks, including Children Out of Detention, Rural Australians for Refugees and the Free the Refugees Campaign, are urging people to wear black armbands to shame the Howard government on "Tampa Day". To get involved, email <freetherefugeescampaign@yahoo.com.au>.<|> From Green Left Weekly, August 7, 2002.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.