Smith in urgent talks on asylum seekers

9 Nov 2009, 6:30 am   -   Source: AAP
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Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has headed to Colombo for urgent talks on stemming the flow of asylum seekers to Australia.

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Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, headed for urgent talks in Colombo on stemming the flow of asylum seekers to Australia, wants Sri Lanka to accelerate its resettlement program for the displaced.

With the stand-off between the 78 Tamils and authorities aboard the Australian Customs vessel, the Oceanic Viking, now in its third week, Mr Smith flew to Sri Lanka on Sunday to meet Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister, Rohitha Bogollagama.

It is the first visit to Sri Lanka by an Australian foreign minister since 2003.

'Political reform'

"I will reiterate Australia's view that having won the war, Sri Lanka now needs to win the peace through political reform and reconciliation," Mr Smith said on Sunday before departing for Colombo.

"Australia will also urge the Sri Lankan government to build on recent returns of civilians from displaced peoples camps to the community, by accelerating the resettlement of displaced civilians."

The federal government is providing $35 million to Sri Lanka in development assistance with a focus on humanitarian assistance and support for the resettlement of displaced civilians within Sri Lanka.

Australia's special representative to Sri Lanka, John McCarthy, will also take part in the talks.

The high level talks come with Sri Lanka's high commissioner to Australia standing by claims the majority of asylum seekers holed up on the Oceanic Viking are criminals.

Senaka Walgampaya said many of the group were fugitives and should be brought to justice.

Stand-off continues

The vessel, which is anchored off the island of Bintan, has been allowed to stay in Indonesian waters for another week as Australian officials try to convince the asylum seekers to disembark voluntarily.

Another group of 250 Tamils aboard a boat in the port of Merak in Indonesia are also refusing to leave their vessel.

Both groups of asylum seekers want to be resettled in Australia, having fled their home country amid claims of ethnic cleansing following the end to a civil war between the Tamil Tigers and Sri Lankan government.

Mr Walgampaya has rejected the claims.

"They are making use of the post-conflict situation in Sri Lanka to make that excuse to seek asylum in Australia," he told Network Ten on Sunday.

"Sri Lanka suspects a lot of these people are fugitives from justice, so in that event they have to be brought to justice."

His comments follow allegations that the spokesman for the 250 asylum seekers aboard a boat moored in Merak is a people smuggler.

Accusations of people smuggling

Mr Walgampaya said the man, known as Alex, had been running a people-smuggling operation out of Chennai, India, for the past five years.

The opposition has maintained its attack over the government's handling of the stand-off aboard the Oceanic Viking with Nationals Senate Leader Barnaby Joyce saying the group should be sent back to Sri Lanka.

"If you want to show strength, if you want to be decisive ... then send the Oceanic Viking to Colombo and you will have made a strong statement," he told the Nine Network on Sunday.

"If we are going to have people in detention from Sri Lanka, then how about we have them in detention in Sri Lanka."

Refugee Council of Australia president John Gibson said that if the government is unable to resolve the stand-off in coming days it must resettle the asylum seekers.

"If a negotiated settlement cannot be reached in coming days, Australia must bring the Oceanic Viking to Australian territory to allow the processing of asylum claims to begin and to defuse a crisis which has damaged all concerned," he said.

 

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Your Comments

Sri Lankan Solution

Nimal Sandaruwan - from Melbourne, 3 years ago

Under the new treaty between Australia & Sri Lanka, SL will offer to deploy its Navy to pursue the boats ( No one would ever know even if the SL Navy sinks these boats in the Sri Lankan waters or in the high seas) and arrest the refugees. Under the SL migration law, there is no bail for migration offences, they bound to rot in the remand prisons for years until they are formally charged. If convicted, they would get lengthy jail terms. This is the "Sri Lankan solution" , the Aus media wanted.

Let's un-hijack the Oceanic Viking

David - from Cairns, 3 years ago

Why can't we be decisive for a change. Rudd seems to spend so much time thinking what it will do to his image as a 'statesman' that this government is paralysed. We look stupid in front of the refugees, we look stupid in front of the Indonesians and we look stupid in front of ourselves. If only we could un-Rudd.

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