REFUGEE

Dr.P.A.Samaraweera, Australia
‘People-smuggling’ had been highlighted in the discussions at the formal session of the East Asia Summit held in Thailand last week. The issue came to lime light because of the influx of bogus Tamil asylum seekers from Sri Lanka to Australia and Canada recently.

Back in Australia, the controversy over them between the government and the opposition reached saturating point. The opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull said, he would look at all options to stop the surge of boats including reintroducing Howard government policies or even refining them to be more effective. He had added, “…This is due to weakening of our laws against boat-people and as a result there had been a 12 fold explosion in arrivals this year…”. Asylum seekers as well have said Rudd changes lured them to boats.

Due to increase in asylum seekers Australia has funded $14.3 million to the International Organisation for Migration. Then another $5 million last week because of the intercepted boats in Indonesia.

While Australia and Indonesia are ruffling feathers with regard to human smuggling, it is reported that the boat-people in Indonesian waters are constantly in touch with the LTTE Front in Australia, which obviously funded them, and are refusing to set foot in Indonesia on their directions. There is also intelligence that the 4 vessels carrying the bogus asylum seekers were co-ordinated by the LTTE Front. Of the 12 ships that the LTTE had for smuggling arms to the Tigers in Sri Lanka, now only 4 are left, and they are used to smuggle LTTE fighters to the West.

Australian Federation of Tamil Association Secretary, Dr. Victor Rajakulendran (Australian 26 Oct.) observed that the high proportion of young men on the boats clearly showed that former Tamil Tiger fighters are definitely among the asylum seekers. He had also said that their passage had been funded by Tamil Communities sympathetic to the LTTE in the west.

The Australian (26th Oct.) reported that the security agencies in the Christmas Island already suspect that a number of Tamil detainees currently in the Detention Centre are ex-LTTE fighters because of the presence of battle-style wounds.

The LTTE is banned in Australia as it is a terrorist organisation. Therefore, if Australia entertains LTTE fighters, obviously they will continue their terror tactics from Australian soil and will be a threat to the community. There is no doubt about this because towards the end of the Sri Lankan war, in Australia, Canada, US and Uk some Sinhalese were attacked, their shops and property damaged by certain Tamil groups supporting the LTTE. The Sri Lankans do not wish to see a repeat of this with boat loads of ex-LTTE fighters arriving in Australia.

Further, if ‘bogus boat people’ are encouraged, as human smuggling is a big business, once the war with the Taliban, Al-Qaida, Hamas and so on is ended, Australia will be a safe haven for “Islamic Terrorists” as well.