Aug 07, 2006

West Papuan Refugee Finally Gets Asylum


Refugee-rights campaigners and supporters of a free West Papua welcomed the Refugee Review Tribunal's (RRT) ruling on July 31 to overturn the government's decision not to grant a temporary visa to the last of the 43 West Papuan asylum seekers who landed on Cape York in January
Refugee-rights campaigners and supporters of a free West Papua welcomed the Refugee Review Tribunals (RRT) ruling on July 31 to overturn the governments decision not to grant a temporary visa to the last of the 43 West Papuan asylum seekers who landed on Cape York in January. David Wainggai had been told he could apply for a visa in Japan, the birth country of his mother, and was incarcerated on Christmas Island.

Nick Chesterfield from the Free West Papua Campaign in Melbourne said Wainggais flight from the Indonesian militarys violence in West Papua entitled him to a visa, like to the other 42 asylum seekers.
While welcoming the RRT decision, Greens immigration spokesperson Senator Kerry Nettle warned on August 1 that if new migration laws due to come before the Senate this week are passed, asylum seekers like Wainggai will be returned to face the persecution they had fled.
The Migration Amendment (Designated Unauthorised Arrivals) Bill (DUA bill) does not guarantee the resettlement of refugees in Australia.

This means that refugees, including children, could be locked up on Nauru indefinitely while the immigration department (DIMA) finds another country willing to take them.
Neither does the new bill allow for judicial review, which is essential to scrutinise DIMAs decisions and has enabled many refugees to stay in Australia. The review process has also helped prevent some refugees from being deported to countries where they would be likely to face persecution.

Anna Samson, a campaign officer for A Just Australia, told Green Left Weekly that had the Howard governments law already been in place, Wainggai would have been transferred to Nauru to have his claim processed there and, rather than being given community housing, would have been locked up in a detention centre without access to health and welfare services.
Samson explained that the bill aims to create a two-tier system of legal rights for people wanting to migrate to Australia. On the one hand, refugees like David will be forced to settle for a decision made by a single department officer that may be appealed to another 'non-DIMA officer drawn from a 'pool of people with RRT experience. They will not have access to courts.

On the other hand, people who arrive by plane will have full access to the Australian legal system. Yet, statistically, asylum seekers arriving by boat are more likely to be refugees than those who arrive by plane and seek asylum.
The DUA bill will not guarantee adequate health and welfare services on Nauru.
Nettle has recently returned from visiting West Papuan refugees in Papua New Guinea. She said that many suffer in difficult conditions in remote refugee camps and for Australia to attempt to reject West Papuan asylum seekers and send them home, or into these camps, is simply cruel.

To prevent the retrograde DUA bill from becoming law, two senators will have to cross the floor. The Greens are urging other senators to oppose the DUA bill and Chesterfield is calling on dissident Coalition MPs to vote against Howards attempts to make the migration laws even more punishing.