Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Greens support this motion. I express at the outset the enormous anxiety that I have for the 85 people who are now on Christmas Island, and in particular the 83 Sri Lankans. In the three minutes I have, let me refer to the recommendations on this matter in the briefing document of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees:

... UNHCR recommends that all asylum claims of individuals from Sri Lanka be examined carefully under fair and efficient refugee status determination procedures.

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All asylum claims of Tamils from the North or East should be favourably considered. In relation to those individuals who are found to be targeted by the State, LTTE—

that is, the Tamil forces—

or other non-state agents, they should be recognized as refugees under the criteria of the 1951 Convention, unless the individual comes within the exclusion criteria of the 1951 Convention.

The following is addressed to states, not parties, to the 1951 convention—that is, Indonesia and Nauru:

Where states are not parties to the 1951 Convention and do not have refugee status determination systems, individuals originating from Sri Lanka and who are in need of international protection, as indicated above, either because of a wellfounded fear of persecution in the meaning of Article I(A)2 of the 1951 Convention, or because of a situation of generalized violence with no internal flight alternative, should be protected against forcible return, and be permitted lawful stay as well as possibilities to exercise their basic rights under relevant national laws until the situation in Sri Lanka improves substantially.

How, in the face of that, could we be arranging with the Sri Lankan Ambassador to Indonesia—and I draw the government’s attention to questions I have put on notice about that particular ambassador and his background—for the potentially illegal repatriation of these asylum seekers? It would be an outrageous thing for the government to do. They should be brought within Australia’s immigration laws and given the rights that are available under those immigration laws. Otherwise this country will not only be breaking international law; it will be turning its back on the very basis of United Nations protection for refugees fleeing violent and potentially deadly situations. Are we going to feed these people back into a situation where disappearances and 4,000 deaths have occurred in the last year in a very violent and bloody conflict? (Time expired)