Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I want to read a postcard from Lombok from a friend and colleague of mine, Val Campbell:

When writing about the Afghan Asylum Seekers stranded in Lombok, Indonesia, I am not referring to the past or providing detailed information about how they came to be there. This has all been covered in documents which are all available in the Internet ... especially the transcript of the Four Corners program and other progress reports on Australia’s and IMO supervision of these people. Particularly graphic are the reports, which outline the failed attempts of these desperate people to reach asylum in Australia and their subsequent five-year detention in a camp/compound in Lombok. Whilst these people are not behind bars and razor wire, they are effectively economically imprisoned by their inability to leave the island and not being permitted to work. These background documents make fascinating and heart-rending reading and explain in detail the horrifying experiences that these people have survived. I write this as a refugee support activist and a volunteer at the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre in Melbourne where I teach English to people new to Australia who are on temporary protection visas and thus denied government funded English lessons. There are 55 Afghans, 43 Iraqi and 21 Vietnamese in Lombok at the time of writing. Of the 54 Afghans, 15 are children aged from one — 14 years. There and many more Afghan and Iraqi asylum seekers in Jakarta, plus 107 from Sri Lanka, 14 from Burma.

She goes on:

Regarding life in Mataram, I was advised that the first year there was pretty awful, as the Lombokians although Muslim were quite hostile as they feared the asylum seekers, particularly I guess because of the shortage of work in Lombok. But over time they have come to recognize that these are good living, non-violent people, who cannot attempt to take jobs, the locals are pleasant and quite supportive of the camp people. Also the Afghans have learned the Indonesian language, and people in Lombok appreciate it if you converse with them in Indonesian. The camp is not far from the large Mataram market where the daily food is obtained, so there is some social interaction with locals in the market situation. People in the camp live mostly on rice, a little vegetable, and occasionally a little fish, chicken or meat. Some families make their own Afghan-type bread. Most families have a little gas cooker, some have an old refrigerator, and a little furniture, but mostly people sit and sleep on the floor.

How are they living? Val writes:

International Organization of Migration (IOM) who is paid by the Australian Government provides the basic accommodation. The Afghan people receive a few large bottles of water per family each week ... They receive a few $USD a week for food.

But, since it costs money to send their children to school, a lot of this money is consumed in educating their children. They live on a very basic subsistence of two meals a day. They have very little furniture and the living conditions are far from the hotel accommodation that some in Australia like to say these refugees in Indonesia are surviving in. Val ends by asking why these people cannot come to Australia. Most of them have family, relatives, here. Most of them have skills that are needed here. Why can’t they come to Australia to work? Why are they stranded in this no-situation in Indonesia? She says:

They deserve better. They are not queue jumpers, there was no queue to join. They are genuine asylum seekers who have risked their lives more than once to find a safe and better place for themselves and their children. It is simply absurd that Australia continues to pay the IOM to keep these people out of Australia and even more disgusting that they would offer money to encourage them to return to unsafe home countries. The Lombok asylum seekers must be supported to come to Australia to be with their families and other people who have fled intolerable situations in their home country.

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