Letter to Senator Bob Brown - Now Released to the Media 29 July 2010 Re: A regional solution to the Asylum Seekers issue Hon Senator Bob Brown Leader of the Australian Greens GPO Box 404 Hobart TAS 7001 Dear Senator Brown Re: A regional solution to the Asylum Seekers issue The Australasian Federation of Tamil Associations (AFTA), the umbrella body of the peak Tamil organizations in Australia and New Zealand would like to bring to your attention our deep concerns over the Australian Labor Party and the Liberal-National Coalition using the asylum seekers issue for their electoral gains at the forthcoming election. AFTA time and again had appealed to both parties to take a bi-partisan approach on this very sensitive matter. Since the Australian Greens have always taken a principled and humanitarian approach to this issue, we seek your help to inform the Australian public of the true nature of this problem addressing the; - humanitarian plight and the desperate state of the ‘boat people’,
- need to remove the root causes,
- arrival of more asylum seekers by air than sea and
- the wider global and regional context including Australia’s obligations under the refugee convention.
As you are well aware, the “Boat People” issue was brought into electoral politics by the former Prime Minister John Howard using the Tampa crisis to win votes in the parliamentary elections. Since then both sides of politics have been trying hard to keep this issue as a burning issue in this country. Howard government introduced the “Off-Shore Processing” (OSP), and “Temporary Protection Visa” (TPV), the “Pacific Solution”, and won an election essentially on this issue. Rudd government came into power promising to abolish the “Pacific Solution” and kept the promise and introduced Permanent Protection Visa and opened up the Christmas Island Processing Centre. Whether it was the “Pull Factor” or “Push Factor” that was responsible, which is debatable, boat people started to flood our waters and the “People Smugglers” are still feasting on the desperation of these victims of war. When the opposition used this opportunity to attack the Rudd government’s policy, sighting the increased boat arrivals, instead of trying to use a humanitarian and bi-partisan approach, Rudd government panicked and started to defend its policy. This has once again paved the way for a serious issue such as this to become an election issue, parading as who is strong on “Border Protection’’. Protecting the borders from whom? Protecting from the innocent refugees or people smugglers? Well before the federal election was announced, anticipating the potential for this issue to become a hot election issue, AFTA proposed in a DFAT - Tamil Diaspora Forum, held in Canberra on 22.04.10 and chaired by Mr David Holly the Assistant Secretary, South and West Asia Branch, that only a regional approach could solve this problem. A regional solution, similar to the one previously used by our regional neighbors to handle the Indo Chinese boat people. Assistant Director General, North and South Asia Section of the Australian Agency for International Development and a senior official from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship at a similar level also were assisting Mr Holly at this forum. A copy of the presentation is attached for your information. When Julia Gillard became the Prime Minister and announced a “Regional Solution”, initially we thought that she had embraced a genuine regional approach. But soon to our disappointment her “East Timor Regional Solution” resembled John Howard’s “Pacific Solution”. Under both schemes the asylum seekers are kept under detention off-shore and the only difference in the Gillard proposal would be, the issue of permanent protection visas to the persons found to be genuine refugees instead of the temporary protection visas issued under the previous “Pacific Solution”. Dear Senator, as you very well know, in 2009 the asylum seekers handled between Australia and New Zealand constitute less than 2% (6500 out of 377,200) of the world asylum seeker population. If this number is a burden on Australia, we should consider sharing the refugees with other willing nations in the region or beyond. But a more effective approach would be to stem the flow at source. For example, if Australia can collectively with other democratic nations use diplomatic means to restore democracy, rule of law and normalcy and help find a political solution to the legitimate grievances of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka, the Tamils will stop fleeing to Malaysia from where they seem to take off in leaky boats to Australia via Indonesia. Concept of Regional Processing Centres
When the Indo-Chinese boats started to arrive in the region by early 1979 it became apparent that Malaysia (the main first asylum country), having taken a heavy burden upon itself, allowed asylum seekers to flee in boats to the neighbouring countries. Indonesia’s then Foreign Minister Mochtar Kusumaatmadja proposed a safer alternative in the form of a “Regional Processing Centre” (RPC). The basic idea of RPC was to relieve the burdens of overcrowded first asylum countries by removing some of their refugee population to another site in the region where UNHCR could complete their processing for permanent resettlement in a third country. After Indonesia and Philippines made their commitments in an ASEAN ministerial meeting in Bali in August 1980, UNHCR had a RPC operating on the Indonesian island of Galang in the Riau Archipelago at a cost of $7 million. “Philippine Refugee Processing Centre” in Morong Bataan was also established at the same time by UNHCR. Both these UNHCR processing centres processed more than 395,000 Indo Chinese refugees and resettled in countries like USA, Canada, France and Australia over a period of 14 years. Out of the more than 90,000 Indo-Chinese refugees resettled in Australia more than 36,000 came out of these two camps. If Australia feels, as it is being portrayed in the election campaign, that it is facing the same situation as Malaysia faced in 1970s, the best way to handle this problem is to establish a real “Regional Processing Centre” similar to the Galang one or Morong Bataan one, and resettle the eligible refugees in the same countries where Indo-Chinese refugees were resettled. This is not an issue to be discussed at the Pacific Islands Forum as our Foreign Minister has suggested lately, as it is not a problem of the Pacific region but it is a problem for the Asia - Pacific region. The only country affected in the Pacific Region is Australia. The Source countries – Sri Lanka & Afghanistan, Country of First Asylum – Malaysia, Transit countries – Indonesia and Thailand, Target country of arrival – Australia and the countries of resettlement – USA, Canada, France, UK, Australia and New Zealand have to be involved in making a decision to establish such a RPC. Since all these countries are part of the Bali Process, it is the most suitable forum to take up this issue. To take a humanitarian approach like this to solve this problem, we need bipartisan support from both sides of politics in Australia. What can the Australian Greens do?
AFTA strongly feels that, the Australian Greens who have the potential to hold the balance of power in the next parliament, should inform the Australian public of the issues raised above and announce that it would advocate for Australia’s genuine effort to end the political crisis in the source countries to stem the flow at source and to take a well coordinated regional approach to process the claims of the asylum seekers fleeing in the meantime. This approach from the Australian Greens in our view will help effectively remove the asylum seeker issue from the election agenda of both the ALP and the Liberal-National Coalition parties.
We eagerly await your response to this request and any possible swift action on this. Yours truly, Dr. Victor Rajakulendran Secretary Mob: 0402 484 209 29.07.2010 CC: Hon Stephen Smith MP, Minister for Foreign Affairs & Trade Hon Julie Bishop MP, Deputy Leader of the Opposition and Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs Hon Senator Chris Evans, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship Hon Scot Morrison MP, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship
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