Sri Lankan refugees held in
Nauru
Media Release by People
for Human Rights and Racial Equality (PHRRE)
Lionel Bopage
Close the detention centre in Nauru and resolve the claims of the detainees
there to demonstrate the new Government's commitment to international
conventions on the treatment of asylum seekers, says a Sri Lankan expatriate
group in Melbourne.
People for Human Rights & Racial Equality (PHRRE) has specifically
called for the settlement in Australia of 72 Sri Lankan asylum seekers
in Nauru whose claims for refugee status were accepted by the Immigration
Department in September this year but were refused settlement in Australia
by the previous administration.
"As stated in your party's immigration policy, we hope that one
of your first acts will be to bring to a close the notorious "Nauru
option" and afford the unfortunates incarcerated there the right
to a fair hearing of their asylum claims" the group said in a letter
to the newly appointment Minister of Immigration, Senator Chris Evans.
The 72 Sri Lankans, young Tamils from the North and East of Sri Lanka
, were among 83 asylum seekers who were intercepted on their way to
Australia in February this year.
They were granted refugee status by the Immigration Department in September
but were forced to remain in Nauru while the previous Government cast
around for another country to accept them.
Appeals for the men to be settled in Australia by the regional spokesman
for UNHCR, Richard Towle, immediately after the Immigration Department
ruling, fell on deaf ears.
"It's not easy to persuade third countries to resettle refugees
who have already fallen within the jurisdiction of a developed state
like Australia," Mr Towle told the ABC in September.
In their letter to Senator Evans, PHRRE said his early attention to
resolving "this sad episode in the history of the Immigration Department
will send out a strong signal to the world that Australia has shed its
xenophobic and bigoted past and ushered in an era of enlightened multicultural
democracy".
Media Enquiries:
Ajith Rajapaksa
0427 610 823
Lionel Bopage
0405 452 130
|
