A dramatic legal standoff in Australia has left 153 asylum seekers stranded at sea after the nation’s High Court blocked prime minister Tony Abbott’s secret plan to hand them over to Sri Lanka.
Mr Abbott has been accused of trying to “disappear” the asylum seekers after he ordered the navy to pick them up and process them on the high seas and then prepared to hand them back to Sri Lanka, the country from which they were seeking asylum. Australia has already handed back 41 Sri Lankan Tamils despite concerns that the move breaches international law and that the Tamils face possible imprisonment and torture.
George Newhouse, a lawyer for the asylum seekers, said the new boatload includes 31 women and 37 children as young as two years old and the group fears “death, torture or significant harm by Sri Lankan authorities”.
“The minister cannot simply intercept their vessel in the middle of the night and 'disappear' them," he said. Full story...
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Mr Abbott has been accused of trying to “disappear” the asylum seekers after he ordered the navy to pick them up and process them on the high seas and then prepared to hand them back to Sri Lanka, the country from which they were seeking asylum. Australia has already handed back 41 Sri Lankan Tamils despite concerns that the move breaches international law and that the Tamils face possible imprisonment and torture.
George Newhouse, a lawyer for the asylum seekers, said the new boatload includes 31 women and 37 children as young as two years old and the group fears “death, torture or significant harm by Sri Lankan authorities”.
“The minister cannot simply intercept their vessel in the middle of the night and 'disappear' them," he said. Full story...
Related posts:
- Australia returns asylum seekers to Sri Lanka: what happens next?
- The life and awful death of a Tamil asylum seeker in Australia...
- I was tortured in Sri Lanka for harbouring Tamils...
- Australian silence on human rights is our gift to Sri Lanka...
- Australia's asylum seeker obsession puts democracy at risk...
- Australia, the steroid-soaked neighbourhood bully of the Pacific...
- Australia’s treatment of refugees is 'cruel and mean-spirited’
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