Lankan asylum seekers flee after visa rule change
April 13, 2010 09:16 am
Thirty Sri Lankan asylum seekers who were part of a group
refusing to leave their boat in the Indonesian
According to some who stayed behind, the people from the
boat began fleeing when they heard about the Australian Government’s decision
to suspend new refugee applications for Afghans and Sri Lankans.
“So the people are feared and went out. They left the boat,”
said Nimal, the people’s spokesman, who has been living on the boat for six
months.
He says asylum seekers are so desperate that the Australian
Government’s new policy will not have any impact.
Originally there were 254 asylum seekers living at the port,
including 31 children, but now no-one is quite sure of the number.
“We came on October. We came to seek asylum before seven
months in
“The Australian Prime Minister said he will play a role in our resettlement so we still have hope that we will not come to that category.”
Mallika Ganenthiran is in Merak along with her three young children. She recently moved off the boat and into a tent.
She paid an agent in
Ms Ganenthiran says she wants to come to
“I can’t stay in
Ms Ganenthiran says the situation in her country is
deteriorating.
The Indonesian government is expected to send buses soon to pick up the asylum seekers.
The Tamils say they still have no idea where they are going,
but they suspect it is a detention centre in the Indonesian city of
“I can’t stay there. My whole family is very, very sick,
very mentality [sic] - I can’t stay there,” Ms Ganenthiran said.
They say despite the rats on board the boat, the mosquitoes, and the shared single toilet, they would much rather be here waiting for their applications to be processed than locked up in detention.
ABC
