Backlash over missing asylum seeker boat

"We are breaching our central
obligation under the refugee convention" says lawyer Julian Burnside,
after two boatloads of asylum seekers were allegedly screened and handed
over to the Sri Lankan navy by Australia.







The United Nations has expressed ''profound concern'' over
reports that Australia was poised to hand Sri Lankan asylum seekers
back to the country's navy on Thursday after only the briefest refugee
assessment.





For the first time, the Sri Lankan government confirmed that
failed asylum seekers would be switched straight onto its navy ships at
sea, even as the Australian government dug in on its hardline refusal to
provide any information.






-
Long wait: A Tamil refugee plays between rows of
houses in a Sri Lankan refugee camp at Thuraimangalam in Perambalur
district, about 250 kilometres from Chennai, India. Photo: EPA







Fairfax Media confirmed that refugee assessments of the more
than 200 Sri Lankans trying to reach Australia on two separate boats
have been cut back to four questions, prompting dire warnings by
international law experts that Australia risked breaching international
obligations.





In a rare statement, the UN High Commission for Refugees said
the organisation viewed ''with profound concern recent reports in the
media and from the community in relation to the interception at sea of
individuals who may be seeking Australia's protection''.




The organisation stressed that ''requests for international
protection should be considered within the territory of the intercepting
state, consistent with fundamental refugee-protection principles.





-
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison speaking to the media on Thursday. Photo: AAP






It added that asylum seekers should be ''properly and
individually screened for protection needs'' through a ''through a
substantive and fair refugee status determination procedure''.




Keheliya Rambukwella, Sri Lanka's Media and Information
Minister, said a transfer at sea would take place. ''They will be
accepted and received by the [Sri Lankan] navy and the normal procedures
will take place from there onward,'' he said.




Fairfax Media can reveal that the number of questions being
asked of the Sri Lankans to establish whether they are genuine refugees
has been slashed fivefold - from 19 to just four - a move that has drawn
heavy fire from international-law experts.





Leaflet
An Australian government leaflet that is handed out to refugees at the camp.






Don Rothwell, a professor of international law at the
Australian National University, branded the development
''unprecedented'' and said it took the tough Operation Sovereign Border
approach to a new level.




''It is suggestive of a minimalist approach in compliance with Australia's refugees obligations,'' Professor Rothwell said.



Fairfax Media has obtained a list of 19 questions that are
usually asked of Sri Lankan asylum seekers who arrive in Australia. This
is in stark contrast to the four basic questions asked of the 50 asylum
seekers on one of the vessels believed to have been intercepted by
Australian authorities at the weekend - their name, country of origin,
why they came and where they departed from.




Professor Jane McAdam, from the Kaldor centre for
international refugee law at the University of NSW, said this did not
comply with international law.




''You can't just decide a case within the hour,'' she said.



''And we also know that people are very scared and are fearful of authority.''



A professor of international law at the University of Sydney,
Ben Saul, said refugee convention stated officials had to have a
''sufficiently robust and protective determination procedure''.




Immigration Minister Scott Morrison refused to confirm or
deny the existence of the two boats. ''You're making presumptions about
instances that I can't comment on,'' he said.




Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said Mr Morrison was showing ''total contempt towards the public and the law".



"If the government believed what they were doing was legal, they wouldn't be hiding from it,'' Senator Hanson-Young said.



Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Sri Lanka was a ''peaceful
country'' since its civil war ended in 2009. ''Everything we do is
consistent with safety at sea and everything we do is consistent with
our international obligations,'' he said.




The Department of Foreign Affairs says Australians should
exercise a ''high degree of caution'' due to the ''unpredictable
security environment'' in Sri Lanka.




Meanwhile, Mr Morrison has confirmed an eight-week-old
Australian-born baby is among a group of 14 asylum seekers from four
families sent from the South Australian Inverbrackie detention centre to
Darwin.




They will be transferred to Christmas Island because they have been deemed fit to return to the island.



with AAP



Follow us on Twitter