By Eileen Gould
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania
CANBERRA, Australia – Tamil asylum seekers have staged a protest at the Christmas Island detention facility as a result of the slow processing of their applications.
More than four hundred asylum seekers at the center have decided to boycott use of the facilities and participation in certain activities. They have boycotted the gym, the internet and computers, library services as well as the cafeteria.
Because processing has been extremely slow, many individuals have waited for over six months to receive a decision on their applications. The current protest involves the processing of claims made by the Tamil asylum seekers, totaling 196, that arrived in June 2009.
The immigration department has a self-imposed ninety day maximum for processing asylum applications on Australia’s mainland.
Of the 196 Tamils awaiting processing, 112 have in fact received visas. However, seventy-eight asylum seekers, having been kept in detention for six months, have yet to receive any decision on their applications.
An additional seventy-eight asylum seekers, who arrived in the middle of August 2009, also have been waiting for approximately five months, without any word on the status of their visas.
One detainee summed up his frustrations in a phone conversation with a Refugee Action Coalition representative. “How long do we have to wait? We are too long waiting. Our families have problems. We have too many problems.”
The protest has been suspended, pending the outcome of a meeting on Wednesday between the Tamil asylum seekers and representatives from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC).
If the results of the meeting are not “satisfactory”, the Tamils promise to protest further.
An immigration department official stated that each Tamil’s situation “must be assessed on its individual merits”.
A spokesman for the Refugee Action Coalition, Ian Rintoul, stated that the Tamils’ applications should not have taken this long to process, arguing that the government has employed a “double standard”.
“All of the Oceanic Viking Tamil asylum seekers were processed within six weeks. The Tamils are victims of Labor maintaining a policy of off-shore processing part of Kevin Rudd’s Indonesia solution.”
The Refugee Action Coalition has expressed concern over the effects of long term detention practices.
Although the Immigration Minister claims that the policies of Prime Minister Rudd’s administration are humane, the Coalition feels otherwise.
“It is time [the Christmas Island detention facility be] closed. Asylum seekers should be allowed to live in the community while their applications are being processed.”
These protests come as the number of detainees on Christmas Island approaches maximum capacity, with reports indicating the existence of ethnic tensions and overcrowding.
For more information please see:
Herald Sun – Asylum island ‘transit lounge’ – 07 January 2010
Scoop World – Christmas Island Detainees Protest Over Slow Processing – 06 January 2010
Sydney Morning Herald – Tamils boycott gym over processing times – 05 January 2010
