quote:

Karen Barlow ‏@KJBar 4m

The asylum seeker who lost an eye in the #Manus Island violence in February is to sue the Federal Government and G4S @PercyKaren @abcnews

CrazyTolradi posted:

Games Workshop in the city were hiring a while ago, not sure if they still are, might be worth checking out.

Ragingsheep posted:

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-polit...0701-zssnn.html

So you have a boat full of people claiming to be Tamil asylum seekers coming to Australia. Do you:

a. Rescue them and take them for processing
b. Hand them over to the Sri Lankan navy who are part of the government that Tamils are fleeing from

quote:

Australia did not hand over SL asylum seekers- Navy
By Arthur Wamanan
Tuesday, 01 July 2014 16:19


The Sri Lanka Navy today confirmed that no Sri Lankan asylum seekers from Tamil Nadu were handed over to them by Australian authorities.

The Navy’s response comes following unconfirmed reports indicating that Australian authorities had handed over 153 Sri Lankan asylum seekers who had arrived at Christmas Island from Tamil Nadu recently.

The Guardian Australia quoted Christmas Island shire president, Gordon Thomson as saying that there were unconfirmed reports of the asylum seekers being handed over to the Sri Lanka Navy.

However, Navy Spokesperson, Commander Kosala Warnakulasuriya stated that no asylum seekers were handed over to the Navy.

According to the Guardian, the whereabouts or even the existence of the asylum seekers were not revealed by the Office of the Australian Immigration Minister, Scott Morrison. It further added that refugee advocates had last week revealed that the said boat with the asylum seekers was heading towards Australia from Tamil Nadu.

Meanwhile, Sri Lankan high commissioner in Canberra, Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe, had told Guardian Australia that he had not been informed by the Australian government of the boat's existence and therefore was in no position to comment.

quote:

CBA financial planning scandal: Senator David Bushby was missing at crucial hearing
July 2, 2014
Ben Butler, Adele Ferguson


The Liberal senator, whose dissenting report the federal government is relying on to hose down calls for a royal commission on Commonwealth Bank, did not turn up to a crucial hearing at which victims of the bank's financial planning scandal gave evidence.

Official Hansard transcripts show David Bushby, who was deputy chairman of the inquiry committee, did not attend on April 10 this year, when it also heard from bank whistleblower Jeff Morris, CBA executives and Australian Securities and Investments Commission officials.

Senator Bushby, regarded in Canberra as a friend of Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, also headed a smaller Senate inquiry that gave the thumbs-up to the government's roll-back of protection for consumers of financial advice.

The government introduced regulations on Monday watering down important aspects of the Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) laws, but Labor, the Greens and the Palmer United Party are set to disallow the regulations once the Senate sits again in a week.

Victim Merilyn Swan, who gave evidence on April 10, said that, unlike other senators on the multi-party committee, ''Senator Bushby has never spoken with us and he certainly does not know us''.

In her evidence, Ms Swan told the economics reference committee about how one of CBA's worst planners, ''Dodgy'' Don Nguyen, took less than two years to reduce her parents' $260,000 retirement nest-egg to just $92,000.

''Senator Bushby didn't even bother to attend nor listen via phone hook-up to the compelling evidence given by the whistleblower Jeff Morris, and the CBA victims,'' she said.

She dismissed Senator Bushby's six-page report as ''irrelevant'' when put against the 547 pages making up the majority findings.

''Shame on Senator Cormann for embracing six pages from a 553-page report because he and the government are too frightened to have a royal commission into the CBA,'' she said.

''They should be more frightened of the fact that the largest and most profitable Australian bank has been found to be involved in systematic fraud, forgery and misleading and deceptive conduct and has, within its senior management, individuals who were so bereft of personal and professional integrity that a systematic cover-up was preferable to admitting liability and taking responsible action to address the issues.''

Senator Bushby was unavailable for comment on Tuesday.

Mr Morris, whose disclosures to Fairfax Media triggered the Senate inquiry, said the senator's dissenting report was ''rather sketchy''. ''I was disappointed that Mathias Cormann was hosing down the prospect of a royal commission even before he had read the comprehensive 550-page bipartisan report,'' he said.

In a statement, Senator Cormann said: "The most important question on my mind is what course of action is most likely to achieve a satisfactory resolution for victims with legitimate outstanding and unresolved issues … I am not convinced that yet another inquiry at this point is the best and most efficient way to resolve outstanding issues for victims."

quote:

'It's obscene': Factory site illegally housed more than 15 foreigners
July 2, 2014 - 1:27PM
Rachel Olding
Reporter


A furious woman whose business was destroyed in a building fire in Alexandria on Wednesday morning said her landlord had started housing foreign nationals illegally in caravans and shipping containers at the back of the run-down site two months ago to "make a quick buck".

The ferocious blaze overnight has uncovered a squalid, illegal housing set-up that NSW Fire and Rescue Commissioner Greg Mullins said was shocking and outrageous.

Vicki Bonneville, whose catering company occupied one of four units in the Burrows Road complex, said landlord and owner Masaaki Imaeda was renting out an old bus with no wheels and had piled two caravans on top of each other to house at least 15 Korean and Japanese nationals.

He had a portaloo in a car wash area and washing machines and other appliances scattered around the complex.

Two sets of caravans were piled on top of each other with metal ladders joining them.

Several people lived in a graffiti-riddled bus with no wheels and windows shielded using scraps of fabric was housing several people.

Electricity was wired to some of the containers and caravans and Ms Bonneville said they would shower in an office at the front of the complex.

"About two months ago, I saw all these Japanese kids coming there and I said to Masaaki 'you've got to be careful'," Ms Bonneville said.

"Then I went to my garage one day and I had rats in there and I've never had rats. It's because there was food in the area.

"It's obscene, now I've lost my business because of his greed. That's it, I'm done."

She had built up her business over four years and had enough equipment in the unit to cater for a wedding for 150 people.

Commissioner Mullins said firefighters arrived at 1.40am expecting to be confronted by a ferocious, but fairly routine, industrial fire at the sprawling site sandwiched between a public works building and a bus depot.

"But within a couple of minutes, it became a rescue operation," he said.

Eleven young people crawled out through the thick smoke and another four were found cowering in fear in shipping containers and caravans that were melting in the intense heat.

"It was just chilling," Commissioner Mullins said.

He said they were trapped in the complex and it was a miracle no one died.

The number of firefighters quickly swelled to 80 as they tried to battle 20-metre high flames while also rescuing frightened occupants.

"I am outraged that there would be something like this in the heart of Sydney," Commissioner Mullins said. "If [crews] hadn't noticed them they would be dead."

The fire was not being treated as suspicious and probably started in a building where the backpackers were not sleeping and possibly didn't have access to, he said.

Mr Imaeda attended the scene on Wednesday morning but refused to comment except to say that he lived in the complex.

Fairfax found online advertisements on Japanese sites advertising the cheap accommodation in Alexandria with Mr Imaeda's phone number listed.

He also rented space out for the storage of boats, mini-vans and buses used for airport transfers.

The area is strictly zoned for industrial use only and Commissioner Mullins said the owner would be issued with an order preventing him from returning to the property.

Police said the young people had been moved to a hotel for the day.

Police and the City of Sydney Council are investigating.

A spokesman for Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said there was no early indication that the tenants were illegal immigrants.

“The government has not received any referral or report regarding possible breaches of the Migration Act relating to persons associated with the fire at Alexandria," he said.

“The government takes breaches of our migration laws very seriously and will make enquiries with the relevant NSW authorities to determine if further investigations are required into possible illegal activity.”

quote:

Immigration department officials screen asylum seekers at sea 'via teleconference'
July 2, 2014 - 3:05PM
Sarah Whyte
Immigration correspondent

EXCLUSIVE


The second asylum seeker boat to recently attempt the journey to Australia has been intercepted by Australian officials who allegedly screened people on board via a teleconference.

A source from the immigration department has confirmed the ACV Triton, a 98-metre Australian customs patrol boat, intercepted the asylum seeker vessel on the weekend.

The boat was initially thought to have come from Java, Indonesia, but Fairfax Media understands the boat departed from Sri Lanka.

It is understood interpreters were brought into the Sydney and Melbourne offices of the department on Saturday and Sunday to help ''screen'' the asylum seekers.

Four questions were allegedly asked of the 50 passengers, including their name, country of origin, where they had come from and why they had left.

According to a department document, the Customs and Border Protection Marine Unit personnel aboard the Triton are trained in use of force, ship searches, and can undertake armed boardings at sea.

It is unknown whether the 50 asylum seekers remain on board the Triton, which can carry up to 98 people.

Greens Immigration spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young said the reports were ''extremely concerning''.

"There is no way that people can have their claims for protection properly assessed by immigration officials over the phone and when they are in the middle of the ocean,'' she said.

It comes as there are unconfirmed reports 153 Sri Lankan asylum seekers on board another boat have been handed over to the Sri Lankan navy.

The asylum seekers, who have not communicated with civilians since Saturday morning, were on a boat allegedly intercepted by the Australian navy near Christmas Island, president of the Shire of Christmas Island Gordon Thomson said. They were then handed over to Sri Lanka's military.

A spokesman for the Sri Lankan military late on Tuesday denied the reports.

''We are not aware of any arrangements of the Australian Navy handing over refugees, to Sri Lankan Navy,'' he told ABC Radio.

Human Rights lawyer, David Manne said if the allegations were true, Australia would be endangering the lives of all asylum seekers on board the boat.

''There is no more serious or dangerous violation of our international obligations to hand someone directly to the authorities that they are fleeing from,'' he said.

A spokesman for the Immigration Minister, Scott Morrison said: ''Responding to speculative claims is contrary to the policy and practice of Operation Sovereign Borders as described by the Joint Agency Task Force.''

quote:

Karen Middleton ‏@KarenMMiddleton 1h

Janet Albrechtsen & former Fraser Govt minister Neil Brown appointed to the nomination panel for the ABC & SBS boards. Notice on PM&C site.

quote:

On-water asylum screening plan 'shelved amid fears it could be unlawful'

Immigration department considered using Australian customs vessels as 'motherships' to process claims as early as 2012, former official reveals

Paul Farrell and Oliver Laughland
theguardian.com, Wednesday 2 July 2014 19.54 AEST



The immigration department considered using Australian customs vessels as “motherships” to interview and process asylum seekers as early as 2012 but was advised the process could be unlawful, according to a former department officer.

The revelation follows a report by Fairfax Media on Wednesday that asylum seekers on board one of two boats believed to have been trying to reach Australia in the past week were taken aboard the Australian customs vessel Triton at the weekend and subjected to a screening process via teleconference.

Whether or not this turns out to be correct, the department has previously considered plans to interview and screen asylum seekers on board the customs Ocean Protector and the Triton, according to the former immigration department officer, Greg Lake.

Lake, a former senior immigration department official, told Guardian Australia on Wednesday that the department had “road tested” plans to use Australian customs boats the Ocean Protector and Triton as venues to conduct refugee interviews.

“The department has previously considered a mothership model where people are screened out or interviewed on-water – using enhanced screening, for example – before being taken either back to their home country or to Manus or Nauru,” Lake said.

He said the plans – which would mean asylum seekers would never be taken to any part of Australia, including Christmas Island – had been at the stage where they were ready to be implemented, but were stopped owing to legal advice the department received.

“The reason it didn’t happen is the senior counsel for the department advised it was not legal to hold a person in a mothership situation, because when you detain a person your primary reason for detention has to be to take them to a detention facility. We couldn’t justify sitting them in a mothership.”

A spokesman for the immigration minister, Scott Morrison, said in response to the claims by Fairfax Media that “in accordance with the policy established by the Operation Sovereign Borders joint agency taskforce commander, the government does not comment on speculation or reporting regarding on-water operations”.

The minister’s office has not responded to Guardian Australia’s further questions about the earlier advice received by the department to interview asylum seekers on customs vessels.

Late on Wednesday the Human Rights Law Centre in Melbourne sent an urgent request for action to the UN high commissioner for human rights.

The letter, seen by Guardian Australia, urges the commissioner to intervene and request Australia disclose the whereabouts of the asylum seekers on board the boats, refrain from returning them to Sri Lanka, and allow them to lodge a protection application in the presence of a lawyer.

"You can’t just deliver 200 people straight back into the hands of those they claim to be fleeing,” said Daniel Webb, director of legal advocacy at the centre.

“Doing so would be a clear breach of international law. We’re asking the UN special rapporteur on torture to take urgent action to stop this from happening.”

The mothership screening process would be a way to “triage” asylum seekers who may have genuine claims and to allow for the immediate deportation of those who are screened out and found not to have genuine claims.

The Australian director of Human Rights Watch Australia, Elaine Pearson, said if the Fairfax report was confirmed the risks to asylum seekers who might be returned were grave.

“If Australia is conducting enhanced screening on-board and handing people over to the Sri Lankan authorities after only a cursory interview, this is extremely disturbing and probably unlawful under the refugee convention.

“Especially given Sri Lanka’s record of repression and abuses, it is entirely inappropriate to hand over people who may have legitimate asylum claims over to Sri Lankan forces.

“The Australian government’s attitude of “what happens at sea, stays at sea” has to end – it’s time for the government to be more open and transparent about what is going on.”

In the absence of guidance from the immigration department, confusion has swirled for days over the fate of the two vessels, if indeed there do turn out to be two vessels and not one, and whether the Sri Lankan navy are now involved.

The Australian reported on Wednesday that there were plans for asylum seekers from one of the vessels to be transferred to the Sri Lankan military.

But Commodore Kosala Warnakulasuriya, a spokesman for the Sri Lankan navy who was quoted in the Australian’s report, told Guardian Australia no vessel had been dispatched to conduct a transfer.

“No, I don’t have any sort of official information to make a confirmation of that,” he said. “Nothing has been sent to our office about any official report about any sort of captured refugees in Australia.”

The Sri Lankan high commissioner in Australia, Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe, told Guardian Australia on Wednesday he had received “no notification” of any Sri Lankan naval vessel being engaged.

The Indian high commissioner Biren Nanda told Guardian Australia in response to questions about the vessel: “We have no information. When there is a consulate issue affecting India, we receive information. All we know is what we have seen in media reports.

“We have not received any official information about this case. I’m unable to comment on what we might do in the circumstances.”

On Wednesday Labor and the Greens called on Tony Abbott to provide details on the fate of asylum seekers on board both boats.

“Australians deserve to know exactly how low our government is prepared to go for their domestic political mantra and just how cruel they’re prepared to be to people, and just how far they’re prepared to trash Australia’s reputation in international circles,” the Greens leader, Senator Christine Milne, said.

quote:

Asylum seekers: my country, my shame
July 4, 2014
Alastair Nicholson


As a young person I had never thought, as I do now, that I would be ashamed to be an Australian. One of the main reasons for that shame, but not the only one, is our policies towards asylum seekers and Aboriginal people. Both issues directly affected me in my former role as Chief Justice of the Family Court, but today I will discuss asylum seekers.

It was the Labor government in 1992 that first acted to provide for mandatory detention of asylum seekers and set up a detention facility at Port Hedland where we began the appalling process of detaining asylum seekers and their children.

At the time that it introduced the policy of holding asylum seekers in detention and doing so in remote areas like Port Hedland I accepted an invitation to speak to a seminar on the rights of children. I criticised the government for setting up what I described as a virtual concentration camp in a remote area and in particular, for wrongly detaining children contrary to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

That set up a media hue and cry with my remarks appearing on the front page of The Australian , which surprisingly enough, agreed with me. Then-immigration minister Senator Nick Bolkus was depicted in a cartoon dressed in Nazi uniform outside of a concentration camp and even Greg Sheridan expressed support for my remarks. How times have changed.

The government response was, of course, predictable and I was criticised for speaking publicly as a judge on a political issue. I took the view then and now that human rights issues transcend mere political issues and that they give rise to a duty to espouse them.

Subsequently in 2001 a case came before the Family Court involving asylum seeker children where it was argued that the court in its welfare jurisdiction should order their release from detention in light of evidence as to their extreme psychological deterioration. The trial judge dismissed the application on the basis that the court lacked jurisdiction, but on appeal the Full Court over which I presided, held that the court did have jurisdiction to make such an order and adjourned the further hearing to enable the presentation of further evidence.

Subsequently another Full Court directed the minister to release the children. The minister did so but appealed our decision to the High Court, which unanimously held that we lacked jurisdiction to make the order.

Normally one might feel chastened by a unanimous defeat in the High Court but I think that I can say that I have never been as proud of any decision that I have made as a judge as I am of that one. I still think that it was morally and legally correct, even though the High Court thought otherwise.

A practical result of our decision was that the children were not returned to detention and revulsion against the practice of detaining children gained force to the point where for a time, both major parties adopted the policy, but not the practice, of refraining from doing so.

However, this has now changed markedly. The media has reported the Gestapo-like tactics of the Department of Immigration in removing mothers and children sent to Australia for medical treatment in the early hours of the morning to Christmas Island. Others are being sent to Nauru in similar circumstances and I understand that work is in progress to house families on Manus as well.

Speaking of such tactics the Abbott government has adopted another practice of totalitarian regimes of shrouding its activities in secrecy and applying a false patina of military necessity. What they are doing is now hidden from the public and the media. Goebbels, Stalin and similar types would be proud.

This indefensible policy continues, fuelled by what I believe to be the immoral attitude of both major parties. The Howard government's policy of turning around the boats and reintroducing temporary protection visas was a combination of refined cruelty and criminal disregard for human life, despite the crocodile tears shed in Parliament by its proponents then and now. The revival of the so-called Nauru and PNG solution that both parties continue to support was a pathetic return to morally bereft policies of the past.

Let us not forget that it was under the Gillard and Rudd governments that this revival took place but it has been enthusiastically supported and worsened by the Abbott government and its indescribable Minister for Immigration, Scott Morrison. His hypocrisy was demonstrated once again when he said that the only Iraqi refugees who would be returned were those who wished to do so. He failed to mention that the whole policy of his government is to treat them so abominably that they will have no choice but to do so.

As for temporary protection visas, these are also morally repugnant and designed to act as a deterrent by separating families. Those promoting them should pay regard to the possibility that boats such as the SIEV X were so full of women and children because that was the only chance of them joining their husbands in Australia. In my view the use of these visas is an evil policy that has no possible redeeming feature.

It seems that what both parties really want is to appeal to xenophobic views rejecting the arrival of these people in Australia when the solution of receiving them in a humane fashion and processing their applications quickly and efficiently, where necessary after their arrival in Australia is so obvious. The calumnies heaped on the Greens in relation to their immigration policy are pure exercises in hypocrisy because they are the only party with a decent and humane policy towards refugees.

I believe that we must continue to oppose the government and opposition policies which, taken together or separately, are the real reason that people find it necessary to expose themselves to the horrible risks associated with travelling by boat to Australia.

It is also time that we put the "problem" in proportion. As The Age columnist Tim Soutphommasane noted in a 2011 St James Ethics Centre paper, Australia received 15,226 boat arrivals, compared with Greece's 56,180, Italy's 91,821 and Spain's 74,317. These are European countries in dire economic circumstances in sharp contrast to ours.

It is more than time that we got rid of such pejorative and inappropriate terms such as "queue jumping" and "border protection" and brought some humanity to bear on this issue. These are human beings, many of them families with children who are affected so let us stop talking nonsense about "stopping the boats", and "processing" people and get on with helping them.

How did we get ourselves into this state? Australia is rapidly becoming an international pariah, riding roughshod over solemn treaty obligations into which it has entered like the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the UN Refugee Convention and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

It may surprise you to know that successive governments have been able to get away with this by never importing these conventions into domestic law. Thus we show an international face as a good international citizen while ignoring these conventions and the rights conferred by them at home and on the high seas.

This is the height of hypocrisy, which in the past has been justified by saying that as a democracy applying the rule of law, Australia would never act contrary to international law in this way. For obvious reasons this can no longer be said with a straight face.

Another reason for this situation is that unlike most major democracies in the world, Australia has never enacted a Bill of Rights. The conservatives have always opposed it because it acts as a brake on the power of governments to act as they please. Labor has a policy of introducing such a constitutional guarantee but has shown a distinct lack of enthusiasm for doing anything about it.

In its absence we are all extremely vulnerable to the abuse of power by our governments which have and are engaging in such abuse but directing it to a small and unpopular minority of non-citizens that they are able to demonise.

Let there be no mistake however that legally, there is little to stop our government treating us in this way as well. The current behaviour by successive governments to asylum seekers should be a salutary lesson of the dangers lying in the path of us all.

What then must we do? I think that we must work together to show governments that this situation will not continue to be tolerated. I believe that there is a slow beginning of a groundswell in the community of distaste for these policies and with the leadership of people like Malcolm Fraser the wheel will turn, but not before much human misery will be suffered by some of the most vulnerable people of all. Perhaps the move against these policies by a minority of the Labor caucus in the federal Parliament is a harbinger of change.

We must bring it home that the people that we are mistreating in this way are people just like us with the same hopes and aspirations. We must stand up to the Abbotts, Morrisons and sadly, the Shortens of this world.

Alastair Nicholson is a former chief justice of the Family Court, a University of Melbourne law professor and chairman of Children's Rights International. This is an edited extract of a speech he gave last month.

quote:

Jansant ‏@Jansant 59m

.@ToryShepherd "#Refugees Action Coalition says up to 10 mothers have attempted suicide on Christmas Island in last two days #auspol "

quote:

We're now hearing the first news from the court proceedings trickle through. There are between 21 and 29 minors on board, with the youngest just two years old. Only eight minors are involved in the current action.

quote:

Merkel presents court with writ of summons from 50 plaintiffs, inc 8 minors (youngest 2) and 21 women
— Oliver Laughland (@oliverlaughland) July 8, 2014

quote:

The barrister representing the asylum seekers Ron Merkel says they are submitting that all the asylum seekers are Tamils and there is evidence that persecution caused them to flee the country. He submits they are being held by Australian authorities at sea, and the key issue is whether the relevant parts of the Migration Act allow the government to hold the asylum seekers. Crucially, he is also submitting he has received an affidavit from the government constituting the first official acknowledgement of their apprehension.

Here’s some key updates:

quote:

Merkel says he has received an affidavit signed by govt constituting the "first acknowledgement" plaintiffs have been apprehended by Aus
— Oliver Laughland (@oliverlaughland) July 8, 2014

quote:

Merkel: question as to whether they can avail themselves of protection under Migration Act, now on high seas #highcourt153
— Hannah Ryan (@HannahD15) July 8, 2014

quote:

Merkel QC: Group is being held in custody by Australian Navy on the high seas #highcourt153
— Jackson Wherrett (@jwherrett) July 8, 2014

quote:

Merkel: Affidavits filed by govt today are the "the first acknowledgement" of existence of these asylum seekers
— Michael Safi (@safimichael) July 8, 2014

quote:

The high court is now hearing from Ron Merkel submissions on whether the executive power afforded to the Commonwealth in the constitution can authorise a breach of Australia’s non-refoulement obligations by returning asylum seekers “against their will.”

He is submitting that the proposed course of action fundamentally affects the rights, interested and privileges of the asylum seekers. The "enhanced screening process" does not afford natural natural justice to the asylum seekers.

Here's the key updates:

quote:

Merkel: "The proposed refoulement ... Very fundamentally affects their rights"
— Michael Safi (@safimichael) July 8, 2014

quote:

Merkel says that the question is whether they can be returned not to India, but to Sri Lanka, where they came as refugees
— Leo Shanahan (@_leo_s) July 8, 2014

quote:

Merkel QC: the group were denied procedural fairness #highcourt153
— Jackson Wherrett (@jwherrett) July 8, 2014

quote:

Merkel is relying on the 2010 case M61/2010 v Commonwealth to support his submissions on the issues surrounding procedural fairness for asylum seekers. Here's the judgment summary (which is not the judge's reasons) from that earlier case, which related to the assessment processes for asylum seekers on Christmas Island:

quote:

Each plaintiff argued before the High Court that he was not afforded procedural fairness during the assessment or review process, and that the persons conducting the assessment and review erred in law by not treating themselves as bound by relevant provisions of the Migration Act and relevant decisions of Australian courts. The Commonwealth and the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship argued that the assessment and review processes were conducted as an exercise of non-statutory executive power. It was argued that there was consequently no obligation on assessors and reviewers to afford procedural fairness, or to decide applications according to law. The plaintiffs argued that the processes were a part of the exercise of the Minister's powers under the Migration Act. It was also argued by one plaintiff that section 46A of the Migration Act, which precluded him from making a valid application for a protection visa in the circumstances of the case, was invalid.

In a unanimous decision the Court held that because the Minister has decided to consider exercising powers under the Migration Act in every case where an offshore entry person claims to be owed protection obligations, the assessment and review inquiries adopted in respect of such offshore entry persons are therefore steps taken under and for the purposes of the Migration Act. Because these inquiries prolonged the detention of the plaintiffs, there was a direct impact on the rights and interests of the plaintiffs to freedom from detention at the behest of the Executive. Those making the inquiries were therefore bound to act according to law and to afford procedural fairness to the plaintiffs. The Court rejected the challenge to the validity of section 46A.

quote:

The case as Merkel has put it is not about whether the asylum seekers should be allowed into Australia, but rather whether the executive has the right to refoule them.

quote:

We now have the first official confirmation of the circumstances that the vessel was intercepted. Gleeson QC, appearing for the government, has told the court he vessel was intercepted in Australia's contiguous zone, not territorial waters.

quote:

Gleeson, acting for Morrison, says vessel was intercepted in Aus contiguous zone and all have been moved to high seas #highcourt153
— Oliver Laughland (@oliverlaughland) July 8, 2014

What are the implications of this? Gleeson QC is submitting that as they were not in Australia's migration zone, the asylum seekers cannot claim protection under the Migration Act.

Gleeson QC is now giving an undertaking that the government will not engage in any actions involving the surrender or delivery of the asylum seekers into the custody of the Sri Lankan government without giving 72 hours notice.

quote:

Govt undertakes not to return asylum seekers to Sri Lanka without giving 72 hours notice
— Michael Safi (@safimichael) July 8, 2014

quote:

Michael Safi ‏@safimichael 47s

Govt barrister maintaining that executive branch has power to decide "where detained people will end up"

quote:

Asylum seeker hearing to go to full bench of the high court

Justice Crennan has just announced that she will accept the government's undertaking not to hand any asylum seekers over to Sri Lanka without 72 hours notice, and said the case should be heard "expeditiously" by the full court.

quote:

Justice Crennan added that the undertaking would not prevent the asylum seekers being taken elsewhere for processing, just not to Sri Lanka or into the possession of any of their agents. The case is being adjourned for the parties to negotiate on what should happen now.

Sisgmund posted:

Geoff Lemon dropping truth bombs http://heathenscripture.wordpress.com/2014/07/08/meet-australia-the-traitor-who-turns-you-in/

Would quote but am phoneposting.

xPanda posted:

Can someone post that "gently caress off we're full concerned for your safety" comic again? Can't find it, and it seems appropriate right now.

Sisgmund posted:

If you troll without rhythm then you won't attract the perm

quote:

Asylum seeker mothers on Christmas Island attempt suicide in bid to help children
July 8, 2014 - 6:59PM
Sarah Whyte
Immigration correspondent


A dozen mothers have reportedly tried to kill themselves on Christmas Island after deciding their children would have more chance of making it to Australia without them.

Fairfax Media has spoken with three independent sources who have confirmed the women tried to end their lives, saying their children would be better off in life if they were dead.

"Their thinking is that if the babies have been born in Australia, they cannot be sent anywhere else, including Manus Island or Nauru," the president of the Christmas Island Shire Council, Gordon Thompson, said.

"It's a shocking conclusion to come to, but that's the state of helplessness in the centre at the moment."

The mothers became inconsolable when told this week that they would be sent to Nauru and Manus Island, saying they would rather die, lawyers told Fairfax Media.

Jacob Varghese, a principal at Maurice Blackburn Lawyers who is representing 72 asylum seeker babies, said the mothers had become extremely distressed when they were told by immigration officials that they would never be resettled in Australia because they had arrived after July 19, 2013.

People who arrived after this date will not be settled in Australia, as enacted by former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd.

"We are gravely concerned about the welfare of the families on Christmas Island," Mr Varghese said.

"We have heard from our clients there that in the last day several women have attempted suicide or harmed themselves. They are in a state of utter despair. They are concerned about the health of their children."

Mr Varghese said that his clients, many of whom have newborn babies, feel like they are in a "living hell". One woman tried to hang herself, while others starting cutting themselves with glass, he said.

"Keeping children and families on Christmas Island is monstrous," he said.

"It is bad enough that we keep children imprisoned. But there is no sensible reason that families cannot be detained on the mainland where they would have access to the medical and welfare services they require."

According to section 4AA of the Migration Act, children should only be detained as a measure of last resort.

Many of the mothers and their children have been held on the island for nearly 12 months, Mr Varghese said.

Mr Thompson confirmed there had been women attempting suicide in the detention centre.

"They are saying, 'the babies have better chance at life if I am dead'," he said.

A spokesman for Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said: “It is longstanding government practice not to confirm or comment on reports of individual acts of self-harm.

It comes as figures show numbers in offshore detention centres have risen sharply with asylum seeker children more likely to be in detention camps than adults.

Figures from the Refugee Council of Australia show nearly a quarter of children (23 per cent of 4331) in Australia's immigration detention system are in detention centres, including 208 children in the Nauru centre.

This is in contrast to 18 per cent of adults being held in detention centres.

Figures also show many more asylum seekers are living in the community on bridging visas than in detention centres.

"The use of mandatory detention as a deterrent to people arriving by boat to seek asylum is one of the most unsuccessful of all Australian government policies,'' said refugee council chief executive, Paul Power.

Lifeline: 13 11 14

Mensline: 1300 78 99 78

Kids helpline: 1800 55 1800

Senor Tron posted:

In response, Abbott has said the government won't be blackmailed.

Seriously.

Mr Abbott, go blackmail yourself.

quote:

Tony Abbott has given a strong response to the reports, though not in the way you might think. The prime minister says: "if true, it is a "harrowing tale" but then says he will not have:

quote:

a policy driven by people who are attempting to hold us over a moral barrel.

Abbott was asked by interviewer Karl Stefanovic: "as a father I'm sure you have great sympathy with these people. If this story turns out to be true, mothers trying to take their own lives in order for their children to stay in this country, it takes it to a whole new level".

quote:

I say if it's true Karl and I haven't seen the reports and look, the fact is the people that are on Nauru, they're being clothed, housed, fed, and above all else, they are safe, they are not going to be subjected to any persecution in Nauru.

Now I don't believe people ought to be able to say to us unless you accept me as a permanent resident, I am going to commit self harm.

Now really and truly, no Australian government should be subjected to the spectacle of people saying, unless you accept us I am going to commit self harm.

And I don's believe any Australian, any thinking Australian would want us to capitulate to moral blackmail.

The other part of this story is revealed by the government in The Australian this morning. The paper's splash says the Coalition had "no intention of sending the 153 asylum seekers at the centre of the High Court challenge back to Sri Lanka" anyway. So what is all the fuss about? There is no minister quoted in the story.

quote:

Love triangle woman distressed over stabbing
July 9, 2014 - 7:48AM
Emma Partridge and Rachel Olding


The lover of a man charged with fatally stabbing her ex-husband inside a busy shopping mall said her partner was "really good and nice" and she could not understand what had happened.

Kazem Mohammadi Payam, 35, was charged with murder after he allegedly stabbed Nabil Naser, 40, to death in front of horrified workers, shoppers and children inside Westfield Parramatta on Monday morning.

Mr Payam's lawyer said after he was formally refused bail in Parramatta Local Court on Tuesday that he could defend the charges.

His partner sat crying in her Yagoona home on Tuesday and struggled to explain how the love triangle turned deadly.

"Kazem is really nice. Really, I want to help him. He's really good," she said. "I don't know what's happened."

The woman said Mr Naser was her ex-husband.

She said she met Mr Payam, originally from Iran, in 2011 after she separated from Mr Naser in 2010.

Mr Payam came to Australia as an "illegal maritime arrival" and was granted a permanent protection visa in 2010, a spokesman for Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said.

"Yesterday he go to shopping ... I don't know why."

She clutched tissues and turned up the volume on her television in the hope of learning any more news about the attack, which occurred just outside the cosmetic section of Myer.

"I'm waiting for my partner's news," she said.

Jonah Galtberg posted:

You Am I posted:

Loving the defeat in the Senate for the Liberals. I wonder what poo poo the Murdoch papers will come out with tomorrow?

"Evil Clive hurts poor widdle Abbott, how dare he!"

quote:

Tony Abbott’s karma moment
Laura Tingle Political editor


It is not so much Palmer as karma. Tony Abbott’s biggest test now is not whether he can get the repeal of the carbon tax through Parliament but which road he chooses in dealing with a wild Senate over the next two years.

In opposition, the Prime Minister repeatedly said “there would not be deals done with independent and minor parties under any political movement I lead”. He helped generate a sense of chaos around the Gillard government because of its reliance on minor party and independent votes.

On Thursday in the Senate, Clive Palmer showed he is going to play Abbott just as hard as the Prime Minister once played Labor.

The immediate impact of that may be an onerous penalty regime being written into the carbon laws which will horrify business.

Palmer is not the first anarchist to cause a government Senate chaos.

But such chaos ultimately reflects on the government, not the anarchist.

Voters and business look to the government to deliver its mandate and, dare one say, grown-up government. So the question for the Prime Minister is about a lot more than rhetoric.

Not working

The all or nothing Abbott modus operandi is simply not going to work any more.

Whatever Palmer’s unpredictability, the Coalition team has been exposed as woefully unprepared to deal with what it faces in the upper house.

This is true in both a tactical and strategic sense. Tony Abbott has to reconsider whether his Senate team is up to the job of handling Palmer.

On Wednesday, the Coalition moved to gag debate on the carbon tax, only to be defeated because it had not properly canvassed the cross bench to ensure it would win the vote.

Then on Thursday, there was the extraordinary sight of government ministers filibustering during a second gag motion – after Palmer threw a firecracker into proceedings by claiming he had been double- crossed by the Coalition over amendments – as they scrambled desperately to sort the mess.

Just who said what to who in the negotiations on Wednesday and Thursday is hotly disputed but it almost does not matter.

It is not clear the government double-crossed Palmer.

For its part, the government suggests Palmer was offered a tweaked amendment that would have solved the dispute and chose not to take the solution.

The end result though is a likely Palmer amendment that places onerous reporting requirements on all businesses and stiff penalties for some in return for his party’s support for the repeal of the carbon price.

Those who said the Coalition got all it wanted from Palmer for little cost may have spoken too quickly.

Onerous penalty clauses and reporting requirements pose obvious problems for the Coalition.

And it highlights the strategic point wiser Coalition heads are making behind the scenes: that the Prime Minister has to start thinking about 80 per cent or 90 per cent outcomes, not 100 per cent wins.

Having invested so much in all or nothing outcomes, this will involve no small change in the way he runs his government.

quote:

Detainee in self-harm bid sent back to Christmas Island against medical advice
Iranian woman, 24, had been receiving psychiatric care in Perth before jumping from a roof at the detention centre at the weekend

Oliver Laughland
theguardian.com, Thursday 10 July 2014 18.16 AEST



A 24-year-old detainee understood to have jumped from a height on Christmas Island had recently been transferred back to the island against medical advice, Guardian Australia can reveal.

The Iranian woman, who was in the family camp on the island, had been receiving psychiatric care in Perth before jumping at the weekend, in what may have been a suicide attempt.

A senior Christmas Island source with knowledge of the transfer told Guardian Australia the woman had been admitted to Graylands psychiatric hospital in Perth due to serious psychiatric illness. “She was considered seriously unwell,” the source said.

The source said the woman was there just a few days before being transferred to detention in Perth and then being sent back to Christmas Island. She was deemed "fit to fly", but the medical advice was that she not be sent to the island.

About two days later, the jumping incident is understood to have occurred.

The woman, who is not a mother but is part of a family group, apparently jumped from a roof in detention on Christmas Island on Sunday evening and has subsequently been discharged from hospital following minor injuries.

Victoria Martin-Iversen, a refugee advocate in Perth, said the woman had been transferred to Perth in early June and when discharged from psychiatric care had been detained at Yongah Hill detention centre.

Martin-Iversen said she had met the woman in late June when she told her she had been “seeing demons”. She was sent back to Christmas Island days later.

In a rare statement, the president of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists said he was "extremely concerned, but not surprised" to hear reports of women harming themselves on Christmas Island.

“The college is extremely concerned that people are finding themselves in such a desperate situation that they are considering such measures as attempting suicide.

“Some of our members have seen first-hand the condition they live in on Christmas Island and have observed anxiety, depression, self-harm and intention to commit suicide in detained children and adults.

“Any sustained period of detention has the potential to be harmful to their mental health.”

The revelations come as the Christmas Island shire president, Gordon Thomson, said the number of asylum seekers under observation on Christmas Island had risen to 14. On Tuesday nine women were understood to be on suicide watch.

Thomson told AAP that Serco, the security company managing the detention centre, had run out of female guards to monitor those on watch and were flying in 55 extra personnel.

"Serious conflict will arise and eruptions have started because a male guard is supervising a woman nursing a baby and breastfeeding," Thomson said on Thursday.

On Wednesday the Australian Human Rights Commission president, Gillian Triggs, said she was aware of seven women who had attempted suicide, threatened suicide or self harmed on Christmas Island over the past two days, prompting a meeting in the immigration department to deal with the issue.

Guardian Australia has also revealed a confidential report written by Serco in February that warned that self harm amongst asylum seekers – particularly those on Christmas Island – had surged as a result of government policy.

“There has been an increase in self harm, particularly on Christmas Island where the detainee cohort is most heavily impacted by new policies,” the report warned. It continued: “as time in detention continues to increase, it is likely that a corresponding increase will be experienced more broadly across the IDN [immigration detention network]”

The prime minister, Tony Abbott, described the episodes of self harm on Christmas Island as attempts to hold the government over a moral barrel”, comments that have drawn widespread criticism.

The immigration minister, Scott Morrison, has been contacted for comment.

• If you are in distress and would like assistance, please call Lifeline 13 11 14; BeyondBlue 1300 224 636; or Mensline 1300 789 978 for support and information.

quote:

A treasure map, assassination plot and kidnapping among dark secrets of Sri Lankan asylum seekers
July 11, 2014
Jason Koutsoukis
South Asia correspondent at The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald



Fear for their lives ... from left, Janaka Gayan Athukorala, 40, Hemantha Kuruppu, 41, and Sujeewa Saparamadu, 42. Part of group of 41 asylum seekers returned to Sri Lanka. Photo: Jason Koutsoukis

Colombo, Sri Lanka: The 12-metre fishing vessel called the Sithumina left Batticaloa on Sri Lanka's east coast at 2.30am on June 12.

The 41 passengers on board had met the ship several hundred metres from the beach after being ferried there in two small boats powered by outboard motors.


Turning back the boats ... Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse (left) shakes hands with Australia's Immigration Minister Scott Morrison in Colombo after commissioning two Australian-gifted naval patrol boats for people smuggling operations. Photo: AFP

Most of the passengers were men who have since freely admitted that they were simply looking for new jobs and a better life in safe and far away New Zealand. After only 14 days at sea they were picked up by the Royal Australian Navy.

On Monday, all 41 passengers were returned by the Australian government to Sri Lanka. A destination where Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said this week, in the capital Colombo, he had no concerns about their safety or wellbeing.

But not everyone on board the Sithumina was just looking for work. Some of the families on board were carrying some dark secrets and now believe their lives are in danger.


Repatriated to Sri Lanka by the Australian navy ... One of 41 asylum seekers is delivered to court in Galle, Columbo by Sri Lankan navy personnel. Photo: Jason Koutsoukis

In an attempt to bring their circumstances to the attention of the Australian government, or any other government or organisation that can offer them protection, these families have agreed to tell Fairfax Media the chilling stories that really drove them to flee their native country.

Each family has a different story to tell, each one as strange as the other.

Sujeewa Saparamadu, is a 42-year-old mother of three teenagers. She and her husband Ranjith, 44, were successful business people and have lived a life that puts them in the upper tier of Sri Lanka's middle class, able to afford private education for their children.


Uncertain future ... the repatriated Sri Lankan asylum seekers - Hemantha Kuruppu (third from left), Janaka Gayan Athukorala (forth from left), and Sujeewa Saparamadu (second from right) - and their families. Photo: Jason Koutsoukis

According to Saparamadu, her troubles began in November 2012 when eight of her relatives including her mother, three brothers, and some nephews and nieces, landed in Australia.

Outspoken supporters of the controversial Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, or People's Liberation Front, a Marxist-Leninist movement that has participated in two armed uprisings against Sri Lankan governments in 1971 and the late 1980s, Saparamadu says they fled for political reasons.

Four of that group of eight, including Saparamadu's mother, have been allowed to stay in Australia and are currently living in Brisbane.

But Saparamadu's three brothers were returned to Sri Lanka. She says two of her bothers, Ajith Krishantha Wanigasinhe, 32, and Susiripala Wanigasinhe, 39, have not been seen since they returned.

"I don't know if they are alive or dead," Saparamadu said on Thursday. "My third brother, Sunil Wanigasinhe, was arrested six months later ... I think he is in the prison in Negombo but I have no confirmation."

After her four family members were returned to Sri Lanka, Saparamadu gave an interview to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in which she says she was highly critical of the Sri Lankan government, led by President Mahinda Rajapaksa since 2005.

"I started getting threats straight away. People calling me, threatening me. Stopping me in the street asking me how could I say such horrible things about my country," says Saparamadu.

As the harassment continued, her husband Ranjith, who is the owner of car export company in Japan where he is entitled to live and work, decided to proceed with an application for permanent residency which was, according to a number of documents shown to Fairfax Media, initiated during 2012.

But as the months passed, and Ranjith continued to work in Japan, the harassment became more threatening. On February 18, 2013, Saparamadu's son Preyon was kidnapped on his way home from school.

"The kidnappers rang me quickly, not more than one hour after he was taken, and demanded money. They wanted 500,000 rupees ($4200) but I told them I only had 400,000 rupees ($3300)."

She met the kidnappers at a nearby location and her son was handed back after she threw them a bag with the money in it.

"They told me if I went to the police, worse would happen to me."

Other things did happen. Windows at her house were smashed. She was being followed by people in white vans. On May 15, 2013, two masked men - one of whom was armed - tried to force their way into her house but could not get past the gate.

Saparamadu showed Fairfax a receipt for the police complaint she lodged that day, but says that no one followed up the incident.

Saparamadu took her children out of school and went into hiding, moving to different locations around the country

"I was very afraid. Two of my brothers are missing. One of my brothers is in a jail, but I cannot visit him."

With her husband home from Japan and, according to Saparamadu, restrictions placed on their ability to leave the country legally, she and her husband decided to take themselves and their children to Australia by boat in June 2013.

They were still on the beach, trying to board the boat, when the Sri Lankan army pounced, arresting all the passengers. Saparamadu showed Fairfax Media a newspaper clipping from June last year reporting their arrest.

Saparamadu alleges that after they were arrested, her husband was taken to a police station and she was taken into the jungle by seven soldiers, along with two other women.

Saparamadu gave a horrific account of what followed, but asked that the details not be published.

"My husband is the only person I have told," she said. "They threatened me, said they would kill me if I told anyone. Said they would kill my children."

Bailed to appear in court for trying to leave the country illegally, Saparamadu said she felt even more desperate.

"My husband could not go back to Japan to work. We didn't know what to do."

Sometime earlier this year, Ranjith and several friends who also felt endangered decided to try to flee the island, pooling their savings to buy the Sithumina fishing vessel. The purchase price was nearly $14,000 and it came with working GPS navigation equipment and not much else.

The boat was registered in Ranjith's name and when he faced a Sri Lankan court on Tuesday this week, he was remanded in custody, accused of being the ringleader of the enterprise.

Two other men who decided to join the voyage and helped pay for the boat were Hemantha Kuruppu, 41, a father of three and a former media co-ordinator for the Ministry of Defence, and his business partner Janaka Gayan Athukorala, 40, a father of two.

The two men run a building material supply company on the coast south of Colombo, but their account of what made them flee is as strange as it is frightening.

"During the civil war, when I was working for the MOD (Ministry of Defence)," says Kuruppu, "I became very friendly with a Buddhist monk in a temple in the north."

Kuruppu says that because his job involved taking video footage of the war, he was often in Sri Lanka's north, near the conflict zones.

"One day he asked me to do him a favour, and gave me a very ancient book, a very precious book," Kuruppu told Fairfax Media.

Kuruppu and Athukorala described the book as an ancient treasure map, that supposedly gave the location of the burial sites of gold and precious stones.

Both men described the book as weighing 13 kilograms, and say that there are several smaller versions in Sri Lanka's national museum. Whether or not the book is an accurate guide to hidden treasure is impossible to verify.

But it is no exaggeration to say that both men sincerely believe the book to be genuine. So did the monk who gave the book to Kuruppu, and so do many other people.

Kuruppu says the monk who gave him the book asked him to take it to another Buddhist temple in the south for safekeeping, because he said people had learned of its whereabouts.

Kuruppu says he did take it to the other temple, where it remained under the guard of a number of monks.

"In January 2013, the monks called me, and they asked me to please take the book away. They said criminal gangs had learned that the book was in their possession. And they felt threatened."

When Kuruppu was asked why he then didn't simply take the book to the police, or the government, he said he feared that they would arrest him for not having bought it to them back in 2008 when he was working for the Ministry of Defence.

"So I took the book, and I stored it, but gradually, because there were people who knew that I was very friendly with the monks in this temple, different gang members started to ask me to give them the book and started threatening me."

Why not give the book up? "At first I didn't want to. Then it was [several] different gangs who were asking and I feared that the ones who I didn't give it to would come after me."

Kuruppu says the gang kept harassing him and in June last year he was beaten, his four four front teeth smashed with the butt of a handgun: "All the time they are coming to my house, calling me, threatening me."

Athukorala says he was not beaten but received similar threats.

On October 20, 2013, both men decided to leave their homes and families and go into hiding together. First they fled to Sri Lanka's west coast.

"All the time, they were ringing our families, the families of our wives," says Athukorala.

On May 20 this year, Kuruppu went to his family home south of Colombo.

"They were waiting for me. They said if I didn't give up the book, they would kill my children. That was the night that I decided to leave the country. I rang Janaka (Athukorala), and he said he would come with me. We thought there was no other way."

When asked why he didn't leave legally by plane, both men said they feared they would be arrested, suspecting that Sri Lankan police were also looking for them to obtain the treasure map.

"I told the people who kidnapped me 'yes, I will give it to you, give me a month to get it and it's yours'," Kuruppu said.

Kuruppu and Athukorala and both their families spent the next weeks frantically organising their passage on board the Sithumina with Ranith and Sujeewa Saparamadu.

"Another gang caught me on June 8, I told them the same story, give me some time, I will give you the book."

On June 12 the two men and their families boarded Sithumina, hoping that once they made it to New Zealand they would be able to organise the sale of their property in Sri Lanka and set up a new life for themselves.

They tried to shield their faces when they appeared in court on Tuesday, but their names and pictures were published in the Sri Lankan media the next day.

"My wife's mother has already been threatened," Kuruppu said. As the interview was being conducted, his wife said she had just received another call, this time from one of her sisters, saying the gangs were also after her now. As Kuruppu’s wife broke down in tears, Kuruppu wrung his hands.

Athukorala attested that members of his extended family had already been threatened since Tuesday. Both men believe they are stranded. They fear the Sri Lankan police as much as they fear the gang members.

"What can we do? We have called the United Nations, we have called everyone, no one says they can help us. We are fearing for our lives," Athukorala said.

Fairfax Media can also reveal that the Sri Lankan Special Task Force commando who has been remanded in custody and charged with being a ringleader of the enterprise, Mahinda Indika, 32, had decided to flee for a very different reason.

Although he was a member of the country's elite Special Task Force, Fairfax Media understands that Indika has, for the last eight years, been the driver for Sri Lanka's Inspector-General of Police, N. K. Illangakoon.

It is understood that earlier this year, Indika was approached by an underworld gang who wanted his help to assassinate Illangakoon.

"The gang wanted him to tell them the IG's whereabouts," said one source who briefed Fairfax Media on the matter. "He loved his boss, he didn't want to do that. But unless he cooperated with the gang they told him they would kill him."

Indika, whose wife had just given birth through Caesarean section four weeks earlier, took the only choice he believed was open to him.

"He learned about this boat that was leaving for New Zealand, and he decided that was his only choice to save himself," the source said.

All of people who were interviewed by Fairfax Media said that they each told their stories to Australian Immigration officials via satellite phone.

"The interviews were 20 to 30 minutes long, but it was very difficult to describe our situation," Saparamadu said. "The line kept dropping out, it was very noisy on the deck of the ship, they couldn't hear properly, I was crying a lot."

Hemantha Kuruppu and Janaka Athukorala spoke of the same experience, adding that they were further hampered because they had to conduct their interviews in front of the other Sri Lankan passengers.

"There were three phones, so when my interview took place, there were two standing next to me and I didn't want them to really know everything about my situation," Kuruppu said.

Several days later, Kuruppu and Saparamadu say the next thing they knew was they were being given a card by Australian Customs and Border Protection officials telling them they were being returned to Sri Lanka.

"I broke down on the floor of the ship, crying, begging them not to take me back to Sri Lanka," says Kuruppu.

Now they don't know their fate. They are hiding out in a half-built house with little bedding and no cooking facilities in the middle of the Sri Lankan jungle, waiting for the unexpected.

"We are not poor, I know we are not refugees like other people, but we have reasons to fear. Somebody please help us," said Saparamadu.