Australia deports 100 Lankan ‘boat people’
Australia yesterday deported 100 Sri Lankan males deemed unqualified
to be treated as refugees, bringing to 426 the number involuntarily
returned to Colombo during the past three months.
The latest planeload is the ninth and largest this month as Canberra
deals with an influx of more than 15,500 asylum-seekers who have arrived
on boats since the beginning of this year.
“Our humanitarian programme is for people who are at risk of
persecution, not for people seeking to undertake economic migration,”
Immigration Minister Chris Bowen told reporters. “We will continue these
returns for as long as it takes.”
A further 99 Sri Lankans have returned home voluntarily rather than
face the prospect of spending years on a remote Pacific island waiting
for their refugee claims to be processed. Australia pledged to crackdown
on asylum-seekers arriving by boat after a spate of drownings en route
and is sending boat people to the island of Nauru and Manus Island in
Papua New Guinea as a deterrent.
“We will continue to return people to Sri Lanka, we will continue to
transfer people to Nauru, and now to Manus Island as well,” Bowen said.
More than 7,800 boat people have arrived in Australia since the
policy was announced in August, and officials have noted a rise in Sri
Lankans making the treacherous journey. “The message here is very clear:
people who pay smugglers are risking their lives and throwing their
money away,” Bowen said. “They are being told lies. There is no visa on
arrival, there is no speedy outcome, and there is no special treatment.”
Sri Lankan authorities have arrested more than 1,200 people trying to
leave the island illegally this year. Many who depart Sri Lanka for
Australia pay up to US$3,000 for a place on fishing boats run by
people-smugglers. Australia also completed the first involuntary return
of a man to Afghanistan on Tuesday under Canberra’s return agreement
with Kabul.
AFP
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