REFUGEE

Australia has assured Indonesia it will honour its commitment to rapidly resettle the 78 Tamil asylum seekers who spent almost a month aboard the Oceanic Viking.

Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor on Tuesday said Australia was working closely with Indonesia and the United National High Commissioner for Refugees to assess the Tamils' asylum claims and begin resettlement.

"We've got an arrangement," O'Connor told reporters in Jakarta.

"We've made it very clear that we will ensure that we realise the agreement that was struck between Indonesia and Australia.

"That's our focus and we will continue to work through those matters with the Indonesian authorities."

Indonesian immigration authorities this week claimed none of the Tamils had yet been fully processed, even though the first are due to be resettled as early as this week.

Australia picked up the Tamils in international waters inside Indonesia's search and rescue zone in October and took them to the Indonesian island of Bintan.

But the Tamils refused to leave the Australian vessel and enter Bintan's detention centre, sparking a four-week standoff.

The Rudd government finally enticed them ashore with the promise of rapid processing and resettlement in a third country - most likely Australia.

Under the special deal, the government promised Indonesia that those assessed as refugees would be resettled within four to 12 weeks.

This Friday marks four weeks since the first of the Tamils came ashore.

MELBOURNE: A Sri Lankan refugee has revealed how a professional human trafficker in Malaysia gave him false travel documents that enabled him to get a protection visa upon arrival in Australia.

The 23-year-old Tamil man, who asked to be identified only as Sanjay, told The Australian newspaper that he fled his home in Sri Lanka’s Jaffna peninsula in 2007 at the height of the conflict between the Sri Lankan armed forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Sanjay, who claimed to have no connections with the Tamil Tigers, said he was detained in 2007 for 20 days, during which time he was kept blindfolded and handcuffed to a pillar, beaten with rifle butts and batons and burned with cigarettes. He fled Sri Lanka in mid-2007 for Malaysia.

He said early this year that he was introduced to a Malaysian human trafficker who told him the fee to travel by boat to Australia was US$15,000 (RM50,641), while air travel would cost double the amount. Afraid to send their only son on the perilous sea voyage, Sanjay’s family, who owned a transport business in Jaffna, sold their fleet of vehicles to raise the money for his escape to Australia.

The US$35,000 (RM118,146) was paid directly to the agent in Malaysia, and Sanjay was handed a one-way air ticket to Australia and a false Canadian passport containing a forged Australian visa.

He flew to Australia on April 12. Having been told by the trafficker that he would be immediately deported if caught with false documents, he tore up his passport on the plane and flushed it down the lavatory.

Sanjay presented himself at the immigration desk at Perth airport and announced, “I am a Sri Lankan refugee”. He spent six months in Villawood detention centre before being released with permanent residency status a few weeks ago.

Figures from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship show the number of asylum seekers who arrive by plane dwarfed the numbers who arrived by boat, the report stated.

A spokesman said in 2008/09, some 206 people were granted protection visas after arriving in Australia by boat, while 2,172 received protection after arriving by plane.

A GAME of pool sparked the riot on Christmas Island that caused 150 Sri Lankan and Afghan asylum seekers to beat each other with pool cues, branches and broomsticks, detainees have been quoted as saying.

As federal police and the Immigration Department investigated the Saturday brawl, a refugee advocate said detainees had recounted the incident and had alleged rough treatment by privately contracted detention staff.

It began in the green block of the high-security immigration centre on Saturday afternoon, where pairs of asylum seekers take turns using the pool table, said the advocate, who did not wish to be named. Two Afghan men using the table refused to give it up and taunted waiting Tamils, they said.

''The Afghans kept heckling and wouldn't get out,'' the advocate said.

''The men exchanged foul language and one Afghan hit the Tamil guy and the Tamil guy hit back and then it escalated with pool cues.''

A fight erupted for 45 minutes before it was broken up shortly before 5pm by staff of Serco, the private company that runs the detention centre.

During this fight a guard picked up a Tamil man by his shirt collar and pinned him against a wall, the advocate said, and ignored pleas to call in the police.

After detainees were locked in their rooms for an hour, those treated for wounds had returned to find 50 Afghan men waiting, and another brawl erupted. Sinhalese Sri Lankans backed Tamil countrymen in the fight that left 37 injured, some with broken bones and head injuries. Serco would not comment yesterday.

A boat carrying 58 people, including two crew, was intercepted 100 nautical miles north-west of Derby yesterday, said the Minister for Home Affairs, Brendan O'Connor. It is the 45th boat to arrive in Australia this year.

Australian refugee rights activist, and Socialist Party member, Anthony Main will visit the 254 Tamil refugees currently moored at Merak in Indonesia today.Anthony was an organiser and active participant in the 2002 Woomera protests where dozens of refugees escaped from detention.Anthony has been invited to the boat by the refugees who have been frustrated that the media have been denied access to them for more than a week. He will be accompanied by representatives from the Indonesian trade union movement and human rights lawyers.
The group will discuss the dispute with the refugees and also deliver urgent supplies including tarpaulins to protect them from worsening weather.

Socialist Party National Organiser Anthony Main said today “The way Rudd is treating these people is despicable. After doing a dirty deal with the Indonesian government Rudd wants to try and isolate them and hide the issue from the Australian public.

“These people are now aware of the deal that the Australian government did with the refugees who were on board the Oceanic Viking. What they are asking for, at the least, is similar treatment.

“After giving support to the murderous Rajapaksa regime Rudd now wants to wash his hands of the problems facing the Tamils in Sri Lanka. These people have made clear that if they are deported back to Sri Lanka their lives will be in danger. Rudd needs to act quickly and allow these people safe passage to Australia.

“I will be investigating the situation and reporting back to trade unions and other progressive organisations in Australia. The Socialist Party will do all we can to build support and extend solidarity to Tamils fleeing persecution.” Anthony said.

Australia expects to take some of the 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers that left a customs ship moored in Indonesian waters after a standoff lasting more than four weeks, Immigration Minister Chris Evans said.

“The exact numbers we won’t know for awhile,” Evans said in an interview on the Australian Broadcasting Corp. today. No special deal was offered to the ethnic Tamils to persuade them to leave the Australian vessel and enter an Indonesian immigration detention center for processing, he said.

The Sri Lankans were picked up from their damaged boat by the Oceanic Viking customs vessel in Indonesia’s search and rescue zone last month. They had refused to leave the boat without assurances their claims for asylum would be swiftly processed. Twenty-two of the refugees left the boat last week and the remaining 56 yesterday.

There is no guarantee they will end up in Australia and may be resettled in another country that accepts refugees, including Canada and New Zealand, Evans said.

Under a proposal to the group, legitimate refugees on the Oceanic Viking would be resettled, mostly in Australia, in as little as four weeks, the Australian newspaper reported Nov. 13.

Australia expects to take some of the 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers that left a customs ship moored in Indonesian waters after a standoff lasting more than four weeks, Immigration Minister Chris Evans said.

“The exact numbers we won’t know for awhile,” Evans said in an interview on the Australian Broadcasting Corp. today. No special deal was offered to the ethnic Tamils to persuade them to leave the Australian vessel and enter an Indonesian immigration detention center for processing, he said.

The Sri Lankans were picked up from their damaged boat by the Oceanic Viking customs vessel in Indonesia’s search and rescue zone last month. They had refused to leave the boat without assurances their claims for asylum would be swiftly processed. Twenty-two of the refugees left the boat last week and the remaining 56 yesterday.

There is no guarantee they will end up in Australia and may be resettled in another country that accepts refugees, including Canada and New Zealand, Evans said.

Under a proposal to the group, legitimate refugees on the Oceanic Viking would be resettled, mostly in Australia, in as little as four weeks, the Australian newspaper reported Nov. 13.

Sri Lanka and Australia have agreed to set up a joint mechanism to tackle the problem of people smuggling.
The agreement was signed in Colombo by the two countries' foreign ministers.
It comes amid a stand-off in Indonesia involving nearly 80 Sri Lankan asylum-seekers who are refusing to leave the Australian boat that intercepted them.
The Australian government says the end of the civil war in Sri Lanka has led to a surge in Tamil asylum-seekers arriving on its shores.
The growing number of asylum-seekers is becoming a political issue in Australia, with the government facing criticism for softening the immigration laws since it took office in 2007.
Reconciliation
Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith met his counterpart, Rohitha Bogollagama, and other senior officials in Colombo to discuss ways of tackling people-smuggling.
Australia wants the Sri Lankan government to do more to control the flow of Tamil civilians leaving the island.
Mr Smith called on the Sri Lankan government to embrace political reforms and reconciliation as a way of securing lasting peace, following its defeat of the Tamil Tiger rebels in May.
Mr Smith also urged the Colombo authorities to accelerate the resettlement of tens of thousands of Tamil civilians displaced by the war and now confined in government-run camps in the north.
The measures, Australia hopes, will reduce the number of Sri Lankans leaving the country.
But Sri Lankan officials say many of the asylum seekers are economic refugees who are trying to use the war as an excuse to seek a better life.

Sri Lanka and Australia have agreed to set up a joint mechanism to tackle the problem of people smuggling.
The agreement was signed in Colombo by the two countries' foreign ministers.
It comes amid a stand-off in Indonesia involving nearly 80 Sri Lankan asylum-seekers who are refusing to leave the Australian boat that intercepted them.
The Australian government says the end of the civil war in Sri Lanka has led to a surge in Tamil asylum-seekers arriving on its shores.
The growing number of asylum-seekers is becoming a political issue in Australia, with the government facing criticism for softening the immigration laws since it took office in 2007.
Reconciliation
Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith met his counterpart, Rohitha Bogollagama, and other senior officials in Colombo to discuss ways of tackling people-smuggling.
Australia wants the Sri Lankan government to do more to control the flow of Tamil civilians leaving the island.
Mr Smith called on the Sri Lankan government to embrace political reforms and reconciliation as a way of securing lasting peace, following its defeat of the Tamil Tiger rebels in May.
Mr Smith also urged the Colombo authorities to accelerate the resettlement of tens of thousands of Tamil civilians displaced by the war and now confined in government-run camps in the north.
The measures, Australia hopes, will reduce the number of Sri Lankans leaving the country.
But Sri Lankan officials say many of the asylum seekers are economic refugees who are trying to use the war as an excuse to seek a better life.

Dr.P.A.Samaraweera, Australia
During the last few weeks there were news about illegal immigrants from Sri Lanka to Australia. One boat was stopped half-way in Indonesia on the request of Australia and in it were 255 Tamil ‘asylum seekers’.

Broadly, these are ‘economic migrants’ who want to migrate to the west on the pretext of persecution in Sri Lanka. Once their boat was intercepted, they have said that they are ready to die and threatened to explode the boat if they are forced to disembark without allowing them to proceed to Australia. The Indonesian Navy did not relent and subsequently they went on a hunger strike. After a day, this was called off as Indonesia did not relax the hard stance against the asylum seekers.

While the Indonesians were battling the boat people at one end, in Australia there was a hot debate between the Government and the Opposition. The Opposition Leader, Mr. Turnbull accused the Government of diversionary policies saying, “…Mr. Rudd, the Prime Minister, has recklessly opened our borders in a way that is placing the integrity of the whole immigration system at risk…”

Human smuggling is a business and one of the pivotal organisers of asylum seekers, Abraham Lauhenapessy, was found in the boat by the Indonesian officials. In the past, for human smuggling he had been in Indonesian prisons for 2 years and once released he was back in business smuggling ethnic Tamils to Western countries. For this trip, the duped Tamils had paid US $4 million. For the well off Tamils who are waiting to migrate to the west the money they paid is peanuts.

On TV, the so called asylum seekers confessed they are professionals. And they claimed that they lived in the jungles from persecution by the Sinhalese. A nine year old girl saying that she lived in the bush and speaking fluent English, stunned those watching the TV program. They looked healthy and well nourished. From their appearance and dress, they did’nt seem to have lived in the jungles, starved or being persecuted in Sri Lanka as claimed by them. These bogus asylum seekers are nothing but future ‘parasites’ of the tax payers of Australia.

On the one hand, we see the Australian Governement and the Opposition having bitter political exchanges about how to control the border and prevent human smuggling. On the other, we have third parties like the well funded LTTE Front, humanitarian Groups, Social Organisations and so on supporting the so called asylum seekers. However, by whatever name they are called, they are only encouraging human smuggling, which is a business for some.

Therefore, countries like Australia should remain defiant and not cave into requests of bogus asylum seekers looking for greener pastures.

AUSTRALIAN negotiators have only one more week to persuade 78 Sri Lankans aboard the Oceanic Viking to step onto Indonesian soil and accept a deal that will see them resettled in Australia or another country.

The security permit for the Viking was extended until Friday. The head of the Indonesian Foreign Ministry's taskforce dealing with the crisis, Sujatmiko, said the extension would be the last granted by the Government.

Immigration officials, refugee advocates, interpreters and psychologists employed by the Rudd Government to break the impasse spent most of yesterday on the vessel. A note written by some of the asylum seekers said their ''final decision'' was to reject the offer of rapid resettlement.

The Sri Lankans, who are ethnic Tamils, have not been allowed to disembark for 19 days, including almost two weeks during which the vessel has been anchored off the Indonesian island of Bintan.

''Hopefully, the extension of the permit could be an incentive for Australia to speed up the negotiation process with the Sri Lankan migrants and come up with a resolution,'' said an Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Teuku Faizasyah.

The ultimatum came as traumatised survivors of the boat that capsized en route to Australia last weekend were detained on Christmas Island.

The 27 Sri Lankan asylum seekers arrived on LNG Pioneer, a tanker from the Bahamas, after the men's boat sank on Sunday with the loss of 12 lives.

West Australian police and forensic specialists were on the island to interview survivors about how it sank with two vessels nearby. Only one body was recovered.

The Immigration Minister, Chris Evans, said the survivors had been through a traumatic experience, and medical professionals would be on hand. ''We are conscious that this group are likely to have had a very difficult experience,'' he said.

The Tamil asylum seekers boarded the ill-fated boat four weeks ago in Batticaloa, an eastern province of Sri Lanka, said Wicki Wickiramasingham of the organisation Justice and Freedom for Ceylon Tamils.

Frantic relatives in Jaffna, Sri Lanka; England and Canada have been calling the Tamil community leader in Melbourne, desperate to know if their loved ones are alive.

''The relatives are anxious to know if their children have recovered,'' he said.

The New York Times, which sent a reporter to Christmas Island, said Australia had a ''primordial fear'' of people arriving on boats ''instilled over past decades of anti-Asian immigration policies''.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

Kevin Rudd...The New York Times has said he is rattled over the boat people issuePhoto: Ben Rushton

Illustration: Ron Tandberg

He began: "Australia is not a xenophobic nation. The argument is nonsense. Let me count the ways." He then refers to various aspects of our multi-cultural society.

It is true, broadly, that Australia is not racist, but the success of governments and oppositions in whipping up fear and loathing for asylum seekers is, in part, xenophobic. Xenophobia, the fear of strangers, is different from racism. The fact that multiculturalism has succeeded in Australia does not disprove xenophobia. Apart from any other argument, there are Australians who object to our multiculturalism. But in addition, migrants who come to Australia are encouraged to assimilate quickly and they cease to be strangers. By contrast, boat people who are locked away in desert camps or remote islands, who are held behind razor wire, who are treated as a threat to the fabric of our society, are doomed to remain strangers as long as we treat them so. All the evidence points to Australians being xenophobic.

He makes the argument that "People who arrive by boat present a more confronting challenge to legal, security and health screening than those who arrive by air and overstay their visas. Arrivals by air must present valid documentation before travelling."

Arriving without papers makes identity checks more difficult, although the immigration department copes perfectly well. The security aspect of his statement is wrong. ASIO has said repeatedly that no terrorists, or terror suspects, have come to Australia as boat people. They are likely to come by air, on fake papers. Fake papers are probably a much greater threat than no papers, because if a person has no papers they will have to prove who they are. A person on fake papers is simply waved through.

Sheehan also argues that "The rigorous deterrence and screening of unauthorised arrivals is integral to national security. Some of those who have settled in Australia and later engaged in criminal behaviour or welfare fraud have arrived via the refugee or humanitarian programs. ... A recent spate of convictions for terrorist activity within Australia has largely involved people who came as immigrants."

This is dangerous nonsense, because it mixes together two different things: migration and asylum seeking. The security aspect of boat people is a beat-up which ASIO denies. There is no evidence that boat people are more likely to engage in unlawful activity in Australia than any other group If anything, boat-people are under-represented in crime statistics. What Sheehan is arguing is that 'foreigners are more likely to be criminals, asylum seekers are foreigners, so asylum seekers are criminals'. It is obviously bad logic, and has no facts to support it.

But then it gets even worse. He says: "The Sri Lankan high commissioner to Australia, Senaka Walgampaya, said the Tamil Tigers had received significant support from Australia, a view shared by Australian intelligence."

Assuming that to be so, there are two things to note. First, the Tamils have been engaged in a struggle for independence. It is not surprising that Tamils the world over have supported their struggle. Second, more relevantly to the present debate, he does not and cannot say that the Tamils in Australia who have supported the Tamil Tigers came here as boat people. His point ceases to be one about boat people.

Then Sheehan plays the numbers game, again in a way calculated to mislead readers into a state of panic. He says: "The number of refugees or displaced persons in the world, more than 20 million, is roughly the same as the population of Australia, 22 million. Advanced economies could only accept all these people by incurring domestic social and economic costs, which they are not prepared to make. Immigration policies have ripple-on effects, hence the need for quotas."

Looking at global refugee flows misses the point that very few of them come here. If numbers are a concern, here are some to consider:

Australia's population is 22 million. The number of visitors arriving in Australia each year (for tourism, business etc) is 4.5 million. The number of permanent new immigrants each year is 185,000. The refugee/humanitarian quota per year is 13,500. The number of asylum seekers who come here by air each year is 5000. The number of asylum seekers who have come here by boat this year is 1500, which is equivalent to three days' migration intake. It is hard to understand why anyone can be fussed by an unauthorised boat arrival rate of 1500 per year.

Finally, Sheehan comes to his point: "The 78 ethnic Tamils who have illegally occupied the Australian customs vessel Oceanic Viking are demanding rights that do not exist under international law. Most have been in Indonesia for some time. They want to settle in Australia, or another wealthy country, but that decision is not theirs to make."

Perhaps it is just a quibble, but they have not "illegally occupied" the Oceanic Viking. They were picked up by it.

They were then taken to Indonesia but they do not want to disembark in Indonesia. Why? Because Indonesia has not signed the Refugees Convention, so if these people are forced ashore in Indonesia, they will be locked up indefinitely, even after they are assessed as refugees by the UN High Commission for Refugees. They will be held there without any rights, potentially for 5 to 10 years. Australia will pay to hold them there. At present Australia is paying UNHCR and the International Organisation for Migration to accommodate refugees, who are not permitted by Indonesia to work or to live in the community.

It is not too surprising that the 78 Tamils are not keen to be put in jail simply because they don't want to face persecution in Sri Lanka. If some (or even all) of the 78 Tamils have been in Indonesia for some years, the case is plainer. They want freedom. Sheehan says they want to go to "Australia, or another wealthy country", but what they want is to go to a country where they can be free. That seems a reasonable idea to me. In their position, I would want the same.

Wouldn't you?

TWELVE more dead. Now will the Rudd Government finally see that its "compassion" kills?

The sinking on Sunday of a boat carrying Sri Lankan asylum seekers brings to 54 the number of boat people who have died this year trying to reach us.

Yes, 54. That's the price of the "compassion" this Government showed last year by weakening the laws that once deterred boat people from risking their lives like this.

Have your say at Andrew's blog

What counts most? Noble intentions, or bodies fished from the sea?

And don't tell me I have no right to be angry. I've warned a dozen times, in print and on air, that people would die as a consequence of what Rudd had doneJust last week I showed that 42 boat people had died already in sinkings off Malaysia and Indonesia, and in an explosion at Ashmore Reef, proving the Government had

again deceived you in claiming there was "no evidence" of these deaths.

Now we have these latest deaths - including two boys - and more will die, too, unless this deceitful and opportunistic

Prime Minister undoes the mischief he has wrought.

No, I do not blame Rudd directly for these deaths. He didn't man the boats or sink them.

But I do blame him directly for luring people into such lethal voyages through his sheer foolishness, political opportunism and vanity. And I blame him for then deceitfully disclaiming all responsibility.

Let's first nail the worst of those deceits - his claim that he's actually been "tough" on boat people, and this year's 12-fold increase in arrivals has nothing to do with his policies.That it's outrageous to suggest that he's luring people to their deaths.

Well, look at the graph on this page, taken from the website of his own Department of Immigration.

See the circle? I've added that to mark the date in late July last year when Rudd revealed his most dramatic changes to the boat people laws. And see the number of illegal immigrants caught and detained immediately soar?

Draw your own conclusion.

As for Rudd being "tough" on boat people, let's check what he actually did that day to instead persuade them their luck was in, and Australia once more a soft touch.

Rudd had already scrapped the temporary protection visas, which allowed us to send back refugees who'd got here by boat once their countries were again safe. He'd also scrapped the "Pacific Solution", under which boat people were sent to Nauru and Manus Island, with no guarantees they'd ever be let into Australia.

And on July 29, he sent the biggest signal of all to show that unlike wicked John Howard, he was compassionate.

Automatic detention of boat people was over. From now on, children and adults cleared of security risk would no longer be held. They'd be free to stay at large while the government worked out if they really were refugees.

What's more, the onus of proof would be switched: rather than making boat people prove they were no threat, the government would have to prove they were to keep them in detention.

How the Left cheered! How journalists praised. How rights activists sighed they could feel proud again.

And how the people smugglers pricked up their ears.

Rudd denies he went weak, but this is how his grand gesture in July was hailed at the time by constitutional law expert Professor Clive Williams, a human rights activist and candidate for Labor pre-selection, who summed up well the mood in Rudd's ranks: "A clear break has been made from the Howard era ... this risk-based approach is more compassionate ... "

Rudd was warned against this "clear break", of course, and not just by some who-cares journalist. The Australian Federal Police, the International Organisation for Migration and Indonesian officials all said it gave people smugglers a green flag.

Look at the graph again: he had.

Or ask boat people themselves if they'd seen this signal - people who'd waited in Indonesia for months, even years, for some such sign.

An Iraqi told the ABC: "Kevin Rudd - he's changed everything about refugee. If I go to Australia now, different."

An Afghan told The Australian: "I know Kevin Rudd is the new PM ... he has tried to get more immigrants. I have heard that if someone arrives it is easy."

But Rudd was too intoxicated with the easy praise to heed such warnings. Too pleased with this chance to damn the Liberals as the nasty party which put children "behind barbed wire".

Oh, how easily Labor preened and mocked back then, and how feebly the spineless Liberals took it.

In the very month that Rudd watered down the laws, the Labor head of a joint parliamentary committee on migration toured the detention centre at Christmas Island and declared it "an enormous white elephant".

Michael Danby said his committee agreed with him, and was now wondering what to do with Howard's "stalag". Could they turn it into a tourist centre, perhaps?

Still laughing, Michael? Thanks to the great wave of boats unleashed in large part by your boss, this "stalag" at Christmas Island is so crammed that Rudd is now having to double its size, and has rushed over dongas once intended for Aboriginal communities.

Of course, Rudd is trying to dodge any blame. Here's his latest spin to explain the surge in boats: "What we're faced with in Sri Lanka is 260,000 people displaced because of the civil war."

More deceit, I'm afraid. In fact, that war ended in May with the defeat of a terrorist group the Tamil Tigers. Sri Lanka is now safer, not more dangerous, both for the Tamils and Sinhalese there.

While it's true that some Tamils, especially those connected with the Tigers regime, are now trying to leave Sri Lanka, not least for economic reasons, it's also true that many of the 78 rescued Tamil boat people now refusing to leave our patrol ship Oceanic Viking have said they'd actually left their island years ago, and have spent up to five years in Indonesia, waiting for this chance to sail here.

And let's not forget that many of the boats now coming are filled not with Tamils but Afghans, Pakistanis, Iraqis and even, it seems, some Sri Lankan Muslims.

But it's the lie of Rudd's "compassion" that most needs puncturing before more people die.



LET me give just one more example of how misapplied "compassion" can actually kill.

The Oceanic Viking Tamils were rescued by Australia last month after issuing a fake SOS from their ship, after reportedly drilling holes in the hull.

Likewise, 42 Afghans were rescued in April at Ashmore Reef and even granted permanent residency here after blowing up their own boat, killing five.

How compassionate we were both times. And foolishly so, in the case of the Afghans, who can now stay despite refusing to say which of them set off the deadly explosion.

But now check the price of this compassion.

The Government has just ordered a coroner's inquiry into the deaths on Sunday of the 12 Sri Lankans to find why their boat suddenly capsized off the Cocos Islands, just as they and 27 others were about to be rescued in Australian search-and-rescue territory.

Why the inquiry? Because some of those involved in the rescue claim the Sri Lankans may have deliberately sunk their own boat. Plus, of course, an inquiry lets Rudd say "no comment" in the meantime.

Yes, it's nice to seem good. But it's far finer to actually do good, even if it makes you look bad.

Kevin Rudd chose last year to seem good, but with the dead now bobbing in our waters, he must be judged instead by the deadly consequences.

What has his "compassion" - of a flashy kind so common in this Age of Seeming - actually brought?

By Walter Jayawardhana
A NDTV television broadcast said 78 Sri Lankan Tamil asylum seekers , who are determined to reach Australia on board an Australian cargo ship have refused to step on Indonesian soil and adamantly refused to do anything else than going to Australia.

In the ship the Tamils, who are mostly Tamil rebels fleeing away from the Sri Lankan authorities have refused medicines and refused to allow any identity checks by the Indonesian authorities.

The people were rescued by an Australian ship when they were heading towards Australia about 10 days ago.

Indonesian authorities said they are now working to find a place for the Tamil asylum seekers . At a local detention center there is no room for them , they said.

Asylum seekers coming by seafaring vessels have become a political problem for Australia.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said detention and processing them in Indonesia will prevent more coming to Australia risking their lives.

Australia, reeling under an influx of bogus Sri Lankan refugees has now appointed their top diplomat based in New Delhi to negotiate with Sri Lanka and explore ways and means of tackling the issue.

Well informed sources told The Island that Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd Monday night had briefed Parliament of his move as tragedy hit another boatload of Sri Lankans trying to reach Australia. Sources said that it was not clear why Australia had to involve their High Commissioner in New Delhi despite having a fully fledged mission in Colombo.

The move came just over a week after Australia reached an unprecedented bilateral agreement with Indonesia to intern Sri Lankan asylum seekers in Indonesia at Australia’s expense only to find that the vast majority of them had been living in Indonesia and Malaysia for some time. Initially a section of international press as well as some governments said that Sri Lankan Tamils were fleeing Sri Lanka after the defeat of the LTTE.

An authoritative intelligence official told The Island that contrary to reports, the entire operation had been launched by the Tamil Diaspora taking advantage of Australia’s commitment to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 protocol which assured protection to people fleeing countries which could nit guarantee protection against persecution to their citizens.

He said that Australia could not be unaware that this was a show staged by the Tamil Diaspora to resurrect the LTTE in the wake of its crushing battlefield defeat last May.

Government sources said that Sri Lanka was ready to cooperate with Australia to stem the refugee flow. Responding to our queries, sources said that first of all Australia should realise that the recent wave of boats carrying Sri Lankans had not been launched from Sri Lanka.

Almost all of them held in Indonesia and Australia had been living outside Sri Lanka for some time, sources said adding that the Australian government was heading for a major crisis unless it called Tamil Diaspora’s bluff.

Government sources said that Australia’s bilateral agreement with Indonesia would be enough to save the Rudd government now under heavy flak over the refugee issue. Sources said that the two countries could easily work out an agreement to repatriate all bogus asylum seekers but they would not experience legal action unless found guilty of LTTE terrorism and criminal activity.

The Sri Lanka navy has stepped up patrols on the north-eastern and western coast to stop boats carrying would be illegal immigrants leaving the country. A senior spokesman told The Island that action had been taken to thwart them leaving in fishing boats boarding bigger vessels in mid sea.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told Australian radio today he had spoken to Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono over the weekend over the location of a boat with Sri Lankan asylum seekers before Indonesian authorities intercepted the boat with 260 Lankans on board.

Indonesian authorities say the group, which included women and children, was heading for Christmas Island but was intercepted in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra.

The news comes as another boat carrying 56 passengers and two crew was intercepted in waters off northern Australia yesterday by Navy patrol boat HMAS Albany.

Mr Rudd says that in a phone call on the weekend, he and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono discussed the recent Indonesian earthquake as well as continuing cooperation on people smuggling.

"First of all the Australian Government makes no apology whatsoever for deploying the most hardline measures necessary to deal with the problems of illegal immigration into Australia, no apology whatsoever," he said.

Mr Rudd says he is in regular contact with the Indonesian President.

"Of course we talked about our continued cooperation on people smuggling as we've discussed in the past and as I'll continue to discuss with him in the future," he said.

"Working with our friends in the region is important to deal with this because of the huge push factors coming from political disturbances in Sri Lanka and Afghanistan and the wider Middle East.

"This is a problem for all countries in the region that's why we work closely with our friends in Jakarta."

This year 32 boats have been intercepted carrying 1,704 passengers and 66 crew.

Former immigration minister Philip Ruddock says the Rudd Government has gone too far in scrapping the measures the previous Government used to try to deter asylum seekers.

"When you look at the changes in detention policy all of these measures that we put in place have been unwound and I think the most significant is that I suspect that the Rudd Government has not sought to return a boat to Indonesia in the time that they've been in office," he said.

Mr Ruddock has also told The World Today he doubts Mr Rudd will be successful in getting Indonesia to detain and process asylum seekers.

"I suspect that while Indonesia will offer cooperation, it won't be possible for them to detain all of the people that seek to come," he said.

"While I think the offers of cooperation will be there and will appear to be genuine, I think the follow-up will be flawed."

Mr Ruddock says he hopes there could be a deal with Indonesia to process asylum seekers on Australia's behalf.

"It would be the equivalent of Rudd's Pacific Solution, he mightn't like the term but that's what it would be," he said.

"You're asking Indonesia to detain people to be processed offshore where Australia and the international community would play a part in resettling those found to be refugees."

But Mr Rudd has dismissed Mr Ruddock's comments.

"Mr Ruddock - was the that minister who said that asylum seekers had thrown their kids overboard?" he said.

"I therefore place zero credibility on anything Philip Ruddock says about anything since that time."

Sri Lanka's High Commissioner to Australia has warned that former Tamil Tigers may try and revive the movement in Australia if granted refugee status.

A large number of Sri Lankans are amongst a group of nearly 1,600 people being held on Christmas Island while their claims for asylum are being processed.

The bulk of these asylum seekers have been from Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, with smaller numbers from places which include Burma, Kuwait and Iraq.

30 boats carrying asylum seekers have been stopped this year by Australian naval patrols as they entered territorial waters.

Sri Lanka's High Commissioner to Australia, Senaka Walgampaya says there is evidence that between 50 and a 100 of those detained could have been members of the Tamil Tigers.

"We have heard that most of the people there, that are quite strong young people, some of them bear shrapnel marks on their bodies too, people who have been in combat evidently."

But Mr Walgampaya admits he has no direct evidence that those being held were Tamil Tigers and was only going by reports from people on Christmas Island.

The Australian government says comprehensive security checks are carried out before a visa is granted and the checks are conducted by security agencies and take into account all relevant information about an individual.

'Should be given a chance'

The President of the Australasian Federation of Tamil Associations, Dr Sittampalam Raagavan says even if some of the people have links to the Tamil Tigers, they should be given a chance

"I don't think most of them could be...ex-combatants but anyway whoever it is, if people want to reform...they should be given a chance to look at a democratic free country to live and start their life," he said.

"I don't think Australians should be concerned...obviously you see the history of Tamils living here in Australia, they are a peace loving people and they have not done anything against Australian law."

The Australian Government says so far there is no evidence to suggest that there are any Tamil Tigers amongst the group of people presently on Christmas Island seeking asylum.

Mr Walgampaya says he is unconcerned if refugee status is granted but warns it could later cause problems for Australia.

"It doesn't matter to us that they are granting refugee status, but I only warn Australia to ensure that the ex-Tiger combatants don't come into Australia and then try and revive the [the Tamil Tiger] movement which has been defeated militarily in Sri Lanka," he said.

Advertising campaign

Meanwhile, the Australian Government is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on advertising in Sri Lanka to try to deter boat arrivals.

The poster and street theatre campaign will warn Sri Lankans about the dangers of using people smugglers to try to get to Australia.

It will also educate them about how to migrate successfully.

More asylum seekers have tried to reach Australia's shores so far this year, than in the previous seven years.

Thirty boats carrying some sixteen-hundred people have arrived in the last nine months, compared to less than 500 arrivals in the years between 2002 and 2008.

Australia recorded its highest number of arrivals in 2001, with more than 5,500 thousand asylum seekers.