Andrew Hall
Nearly five years after their boats entered Australian waters, 45 Afghan asylum seekers, along with many others including children, remain trapped in dehumanising Australian-funded camps in Lombok, Indonesia.
Twenty-three-year-old Laila Sedaqatyar, her husband and daughters, then aged four and two, arrived by boat at Ashmore Reef on October 12, 2001, after it had been excised from Australia's migration zone. Refugee advocate Marion Le, who was asked in January 2005 by the Sedaqatyar family in Australia for help, describes the case as a history of despair.
She said that the family suffered the fate that will await all asylum seekers who try to reach Australia by boat if the new migration bill, delayed until August 8, is passed. The new bill will ensure that all asylum seekers are taken to Nauru, an island beyond the reach of Australian law, and placed in indefinite detention.
An application for a Refugee and Humanitarian (Class XB) visa was lodged for Laila and her family in June 2002. It was rejected on September 8, 2004, more than two years later. After making enquiries, Le became aware that the UNHCR in Indonesia had re-opened the family's case in August 2004, a month before the Australian embassy had rejected the claim and that this information had been communicated to the family's then Australian agent.
Le then contacted the UNHCR, the Department of Immigration (DIMA) and Senator Amanda Vanstone seeking humanitarian and compassionate consideration. She has received no straight answers, and the situation remains unresolved.
Le also wrote to the minister and DIMA notifying them that Laila's extended family in Australia were willing to support her. Laila has close to 100 relatives — parents, three brothers and four sisters, six uncles, five aunts and many cousins — living here. Surely this support network is grounds for allowing Laila and her family to live here?
But the Howard government's solution for asylum seekers like Laila and her family is to make them suffer — mentally, physically and emotionally. This is the hidden horror of Australia's so-called border protection policy, and it will be worse if the new bill, which will require all asylum seekers to be processed offshore, becomes law.
From Green Left Weekly, July 19, 2006.
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