News: Sri Lankans on Oceanic Viking offered resettlement in Australia

[merlino]

November 12, 2009

Appeared in News.com.au Top stories

 

 

THE Federal Government says it remains hopeful that the impasse involving 78 asylum seekers on board the Oceanic Viking will be ended soon.

 

 

The Government has made a new offer to the Sri Lankans on board the Australian Customs vessel, who have been on the vessel for more than two weeks, although The Australian suggest the asylum seekers have already rejected the deal.

 

 

Under the offer, those already recognised as refugees by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) have been promised resettlement in Australia within a month.

 

 

Those not yet classified as such by the UNHCR would be resettled within 12 weeks if their claims are proved.

 

 

But the catch is they must disembark and stay in an Indonesian detention centre while their claims are processed.

 

 

Am I missing out on something? Should we all hop on a boat now?

[Guest wanderer]

merlino,

Am I missing out on something? Should we all hop on a boat now?

Well, you're free to fly out to Indonesia and have a lurk about to see if someone who knows someone who knows something about a rickety old boat wants to lighten you of the $10,000 or so that you could still have if you hadn't been lightened of it already in getting around to see if you could find someone to know.

 

Perhaps to add to the adventure you could drop in on the West Bank, Somali, the Congo Reublic, Iraq or Afghanistan just to get the taste of a bit of blood flowing from a mutilated body, just mind you to get you into the same frame of mind that some Sri Lankans may be in after a couple of decades of civil war with horrendous bloodshed and loss of lives.

 

Do make sure you get into a bit of swimming training just in case the boat is overloaded and goes down as one did a few years back, just another 350 lives or so lost.

 

As to the Sri Lankans on the Oceanic Viking;

. A distress call went out from their boat when in Indonesian response territory, Indonesians claiming they did not have a ship that could respond and hence the OV despatch and sailing to nearer Indonesia to offload the SLs.

. SLs have refused to leave the OV

. Indonesians washing their hands of the deal.

. So negotians have dragged on rather than use of force

 

Would you rather have seen force used on women and children merlino?

 

Senator Evans was on TV tonight and one thing he mentioned was that assessment in a three month time frame was up for grabs so somewhere along lines of communication, time frame has got distorted.

But it's just another day in the messy world of dealing with people who have had a harsh life.

I hope it gets sorted ASAP in a reasonable way.

 

A Sri Lankan Diplomat interviewed at length last night told the government line saying refugee/resettlement camps for the Tamil Tigers on SL were not quite hell as has been reported and offered that perhaps the OV should just sail NW back to SL!!

 

Have you got a good solution merlino, and then you could just drop the o if you thought that was appropriate.

 

Looks like a little headway - Twenty Sri Lankans agree to leave ship

 

Meanwhile we have the Brits tightening immigration

Britain tightens migration rules

 

And if you want some snuggling to rhyme with smuggling

Hundreds strip down in Sydney

[merlino]

merlino,

 

Well, you're free to fly out to Indonesia and have a lurk about to see if someone who knows someone who knows something about a rickety old boat wants to lighten you of the $10,000 or so that you could still have if you hadn't been lightened of it already in getting around to see if you could find someone to know.

 

Perhaps to add to the adventure you could drop in on the West Bank, Somali, the Congo Reublic, Iraq or Afghanistan just to get the taste of a bit of blood flowing from a mutilated body, just mind you to get you into the same frame of mind that some Sri Lankans may be in after a couple of decades of civil war with horrendous bloodshed and loss of lives.

 

Do make sure you get into a bit of swimming training just in case the boat is overloaded and goes down as one did a few years back, just another 350 lives or so lost.

 

As to the Sri Lankans on the Oceanic Viking;

. A distress call went out from their boat when in Indonesian response territory, Indonesians claiming they did not have a biat that could respond and hence the OV despatch and sailing to nearer Indonesia to offload the SLs.

. SLs have refused to leabe the Boat

. Indonesians washing their hands of the deal.

. So negotians have dragged on rather than use of force

 

Would you rather have seen force used on women and children merlino?

 

Senator Evans was on TV tonight and one thing he mentioned was that assessment in a three month time frame was up for grabs so somewhere along lines of communication, time frame has got distorted.

But it's just another day in the messy world of dealing with people who have had a harsh life.

I hope it gets sorted ASAP in a reasonable way.

 

A Sri Lankan Diplomat interviewed at length last night told the government line saying refugee/resettlement camps for the Tamil Tigers on SL were not quite hell as has been reported and offered that perhaps the OV should just sail NW back to SL!!

 

Have you got a good solution merlino, and then you could just drop the o if you thought that was appropriate.

 

Looks like a little headway - Twenty Sri Lankans agree to leave ship

 

Meanwhile we have the Brits tightening immigration

Britain tightens migration rules

 

And if you want some snuggling to rhyme with smuggling

Hundreds strip down in Sydney

 

And so I get the drift. So if I do pay someone (not the DIAC) 10 grand to get me on a boat, instead of applying legitimately, I'd get my visa. Okay interesting.

 

Don't think you understood what i was trying to get at, but thanks for trying.

[merlino]

"I think it is wrong for anybody to go a strange land and then assert emotional pressure of this kind..." - Sri Lankan Ambassador to the UN.

 

How true

[McKlaut]

And so I get the drift. So if I do pay someone (not the DIAC) 10 grand to get me on a boat, instead of applying legitimately, I'd get my visa. Okay interesting.

 

Don't think you understood what i was trying to get at, but thanks for trying.

He/she is not here to understand but to make all topics irrelevant.

 

About refegee. Now it looks like a circus. Let's place them into the highest priority group before ENS and others.

Brilliant. Instead of getting people with money, skills and good character they attract illigals. And this would be the face of future Aus migration. Of course locals would moan about such migrants and blame them for everything because state budget funds their livings, education ....

Or maybe they just need new slaves?

[Guest wanderer]

merlino & maccas

Don't think you understood what i was trying to get at, but thanks for trying.

I probably understand far better than either of you might want to comprehend just not my understanding.

[Petals]

I wonder what would happen if the Brits jumped on a boat and arrived and refused to get off interesting.

 

However as I said in another thread I cannot see any answers for the gov in this. They are caught between a rock and a hard place and whatever they decide to do will not suit everyone.

 

I guess if I was one of them on the ship, what would I have to lose, might as well kick up as much stink as I could I may win I may not but at least I am trying for a better life.

 

One thing the Tamils are Christian people and even though they now have peace we do not live in Sri Lanka and we do not know if they are still being picked on by the Sinhalese. Our values are different to other cultures.

 

Even if boats kept coming they will never catch up to the amount of illegal immigrants who arrive every day by plane, overstay their visas etc.

[Raul Senise]

As someone working in the Australian Immigration industry, I am very interested to see opinions and reactions to this news, especially from people affected by the recent changes to the General Skilled Migration program.

 

Raul T Senise Registered Australian Migration Agent, MARA No. 0636699

[MARYROSE02]

Surely the obvious solution is for the Australian Government to charter as many planes as it takes to perform a Berlin-like airlift to get as many refugees as possible to Australia. There is plenty of room in hotels and hostels to put them all up. If a few tourists have their holidays cancelled then so what. This is an EMERGENCY.

 

When the hotels are full then plenty of concerned citizens will throw open their homes. Just as they will be willing to put themselves further back on the waiting list for hospital care so that refugees can be cared for.

 

All the Government need do then is to weed out the minority of racists and we can move forward as a beacon for the rest of the world.

[Guest marco1]

Wanderer...you are full of it. Honestly.

 

"West Bank, Somalia, the Congo Republic, Iraq or Afghanistan".

 

Have you ever considered that the "poor" victims you want so eagerly let enter Australia may actually have responsibility for what happened to their country?

Victim and aggressor are indistinguishable and most of the time if not all the time it is fundamentalist religion that is driving one or both parties. Who is to blame? 100% of the time it is the country or countries at war. Sri Lanka is responsible for their problem and should not be allowed to off loaded it onto us. The Tamil problem is a product of the Tamil themselves, they took the hard line against the oppression in stead to adapt and evolve out of the caves.

 

To take the situation at one point in time, for example that particular week that the Israeli had enough and gave the bastards a beating. Is that the excuse needed to label all "Palestinians" as poor victims of the Israelis? You must be kidding.

What about Iraq? Worst thing we did was bring Sadam down. He was the antibody taking care of the infection. That culture all it understands is the whip. Take the whip away and give them democracy? Are you for real? And take in Australia all the one running away from their own doing, both sides, the sadamist and the antisadamist, here in Australia so they can continue their dispute here?

Or did you miss the cheering that went on in Lakemba and Auburn when Alqaida hit the towers the 11th of September? You forgot right? Those are the "refuges", that is the "quality"

 

The best thing Australia can do and so should all other western countries is to rip up the refugee treaties and resign from the UN, that is ever more an instrument dominated by middle east, Africa and south America for their own purpose and agenda.

 

And if you want to talk about the "refugees" that we let in Australia I tell you exactly what they do. First, having successfully conned Immigration and found a moron that believes their lies aided by the Interpreters who lie and cheat with them, and gives them a visa, they rush to Centrelink with refugee status and jump on Disability pension, Age pension, Family payments and unemployment for life with no checks nor waiting period. Second stop is the Housing Commission were they get priority and jump a queue of 10 years and get almost free housing.

Once they are established, they go to Jet Star and book a flight back home for a paid holiday courtesy of the Australina taxpayer.

Yes, back to that place they swore on a stack of Koran that their life was in danger and they had been tortured and imprisoned.

[George Lombard]

Suggest you all read the commentary by Peter Mares in this week's Inside Story - The fifth ripple: Australia’s place in the global refugee crisis | Inside Story - and bear in mind that those who have been stuffed up by the 23 September fiasco are ultimately relying on the same wellsprings of compassion which will allow some of the boat people to have access to Australia. It's a big country, there's room for everyone. Has to be or there's no migration program, we'll become like Switzerland or Japan.

 

Cheers,

 

George Lombard

[Guest marco1]

What is wrong with Swizzerland and Japan?

[merlino]

What is wrong with Swizzerland and Japan?

 

I think Japan once isolated itself from the outside world with its anti-immigration movement

[Petals]

Totally agree about Switzerland and Japan and they call us racist.

[Guest proud2beaussie]

The point George makes is an excellent one-Australia is a big country and there IS room enough for everyone including refugees seeking to escape atrocity and there is room for skilled migrants as well,it is possible for Australia to have both-but that requires a government with an understanding that to attract skilled migrants you need to establish a processing program and stick to it without changing it every 6 months-or at least if you are going to change it give people plenty of notice and the chance to obtain a refund of their VAC if they wish to withdraw an application .

[George Lombard]

Switzerland and Japan stand out among Western economies for a failure to acknowledge the burden of an ageing population and establishing rational policies for migration to supplement a potential 40% decline in population, 50 years hence.

 

Cheers,

 

George Lombard

[Guest marco1]

I think Japan once isolated itself from the outside world with its anti-immigration movement

 

Yes, you are right. In the 50ties in order to get citizenship in Japan you had to be there for 3 generations and they would send a culture inspector to sniff around your kitchen to see if you cooked Japanese food or something else and to give you points according to how much you had assimilated. We had the white policy. So?

 

it is the bleeding hearts and the assorted morons in the Un and other organisations who make people think that they must be "compassionate". What people fail to realise is that they are making charity with what is not for them to give. If I get a tribe of refugees to live next door to me, I am screwed, my property price will fall and I will have to move.

Of course the politican who did this to me does not care, he is getting paid a high salary by me ( the idiot) and gets the pats on his back for being so compassionate.

 

The only right thing to do is to have a referendum and to blacklist the countries we dont want people from, based on police, welfare, and compensation courts statistics.

The nationality who adapts, and thrives and is an asset gets to stay the others get barred. As if anyone would be game to do that. Yet it is only comon sense.

[Guest marco1]

Switzerland and Japan stand out among Western economies for a failure to acknowledge the burden of an ageing population and establishing rational policies for migration to supplement a potential 40% decline in population, 50 years hence.

George Lombard

 

Yes, the Swiss have failed, they are such swain aren't they?

And so are the Japanese, what do they think they are not letting all those nice people from the island of Mindano to live amongh them and bring along their peacefull religion and laborious and dedicated pillars of the comunity?

[McKlaut]

If there is enough room for everybody than why skilled migrants are treated as villains that are guilty of every problem in Aus whereas illegals are the main target for showing virtue and patience for every poitician?

[Guest marco1]

If there is enough room for everybody than why skilled migrants are treated as villains that are guilty of every problem in Aus whereas illegals are the main target for showing virtue and patience for every poitician?

I don't think skilled migrants are treated as villain, that may be your perception based on personal experience, but you are correct in saying that illegals are the photo opportunity for the lefties of this world.

 

All I want to say to whose bleeding hearts , including their immigration agents, that if they feel so strongly about it, then they should get some refugees to camp in their backyard, take up a couple of rooms in your home or flat, make charity with what belongs to you not with what I have worked to achieve and my environment I have been enjoying.

 

Each country has the government they deserve and in the long run each country is responsible for the pooh they are in. Look at Zimbabwe, and South Africa. They had their day in the sun chasing all those abusive whites out. Is the country better now?

Yea right!

Bring them all here you say.

The problem is that they will reproduce exactly what they have done in their own country here.

So really the test is simple. If we get to choose immigrants all we want to do is look at their roots and origins. Do you want people who have build the London bridge for example? I do, so guys you are all welcome.

Do I want people from Rwanda to go around at night with machetes because they dislike the other tribe religion? Hardly.

Some deluded people think that when a person sets foot in Australia they by some magic spell will turn into a dinky do Aussie.

That does not happen and since the event of multiculturalism that may never happen again.

May be in 3 generations and providing there is no religion from "back home" to teach them to hate the locals.

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi All

 

According to DIAC's most recent figures, the UK remains the largest source of migrants to Australia. (I think the number of Kiwis is actually higher but Kiwis can get a special category visa automatically on arrival in Oz. As far as I know, only NZ Citizens have this privilege and everyone else needs a good reason even for a short visit to Oz.)

 

People smuggling is a lawful activity in Indonesian law, so I have read recently. I assume that Australia needs to bring diplomatic pressure to bear on Indonesia, perhaps via the United Nations? (George Lombard knows about this area of law so hopefully he might explain what needs to happen?)

 

What never fails to astound me is that the number of "irregular boat arrivals" in Australia is TINY compared to the thousands of people who arrive in the UK every year, claiming to be fleeing from persecution elsewhere. Allegedly people use perfectly legitimate identity documents to make their way into France - where the gendarmes avert their eyes because they know that the travellers are headed for the UK and the French are supremely pragmatic.

 

Allegedly the travellers destroy all their documents in France so that they can arrive in the UK with no proof of identity, insist that they can only speak an obscure local dialect that no known interpreter can speak, and the UK assumes that they are brethren of the world escaping from all sorts of unimaginable horrors elsewhere. The British Government prides itself on being a total patsy, it seems to me..... Since we can't prove where they came from we can't take them home, it appears.

 

Gordon Brown belatedly claims that he intends to clamp down after years of unrestricted immigration to the UK? That idea only occurred to him two days ago. Where was his focus last week? Repaying £12,000 for cleaning an unnecessarily large house in Scotland, perchance?

 

Unnamed UK Border Agency officials are wailing to the British press that all the Student visa scams that Australia has lately taken to complaining about are now being perpetrated big-style on the British Govt instead. Another patsy policy requires the Border Agency officials to turn a blind eye, so they moan. Exactly as DIAC were ordered to do before them, I expect.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Guest John Sydney]

What I object to this whole situation is these 78 refuges is the amount of money wasted on them

First it was the search by 5 aircraft

Second picking them up and taking them to Indonesia as per agreement

Third The ship hanging about for 25 days until to do it duty whats the running cost per day?

Australia must have spent 3millions dollars so far on this lot

I beleive giving 3 million dollars worth of aid to Si Lanka would have helped far more people

[Petals]

Ok so when is the boat leaving from UK :idea:

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Ok so when is the boat leaving from UK :idea:

 

:biglaugh:It is a long way by sea, Petals. The weather will be right for a westabout or an eastabout passage from around early January 2010 in a short " weather window" which will be open for about a month. Biscay won't be nice but if the fleet heads South West from Plymouth they might be able to claw their way offshore and into the influence of the Trade Winds fairly fast.

 

Suitable routeing charts can be obtained from Her Majesty's Hydrographer to the Royal Navy and they are good. The weather in a given sector does tend to do what the charts predict at the given time of the year - Somali & other pirates permitting, that is.

 

However the Brits would need to be able to claim asylum in Oz. What sort of persecution can they claim to be fleeing from?

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Guest Gollywobbler]

What I object to this whole situation is these 78 refuges is the amount of money wasted on them

First it was the search by 5 aircraft

Second picking them up and taking them to Indonesia as per agreement

Third The ship hanging about for 25 days until to do it duty whats the running cost per day?

Australia must have spent 3millions dollars so far on this lot

I beleive giving 3 million dollars worth of aid to Si Lanka would have helped far more people

 

Hi John

 

I agree. However I gather that the Minister has recently set up a fur-lined Reception Centre on Christmas Island? He is keen to promote the Island as a worthwhile centre for tourism, it seems. Ten minutes there with all mod cons = PR in Oz a couple of weeks later as far as I can work out?

 

Cheers

 

Gill