Australia gifts Sri Lanka boats to tackle asylum-seekers

[icyfroth]

Sydney (AFP) - Australia on Sunday said it would give Sri Lanka two patrol boats to tackle people-smuggling operations in the Indian Ocean, hoping they can detect vessels before they leave the Asian nation's waters.

The decision comes with the Tony Abbott-led government ramping up efforts to deter asylum-seekers arriving on unauthorised boats, a sensitive political issue that was a dominant factor in September elections.

While many boats make the precarious journey from Indonesia, 120 left from Sri Lanka last year for what can be a three-week voyage, according to official figures, although only 14 have been detected so far in 2013.

"Australia is providing training with the patrol boats, which will operate alongside the Sri Lankan Navy's existing capability to intercept people-smuggling efforts originating in Sri Lankan waters," Abbott's office said in a statement.

"Our cooperation with Sri Lanka in the region is important as it is effective.

"Sri Lanka provides strong support against people-smuggling operations and Australian agencies work closely with their Sri Lankan counterparts."

Sri Lankan police have arrested dozens of people for organising illegal boat trips to Australia, including several naval personnel in an embarrassment for Colombo which had maintained there was no senior level official collusion with the smugglers.

According to reports the patrol boats are 38-metre (125-foot) vessels which have a complement of 12 sailors. They have been a mainstay of Australian maritime surveillance since the late 1990s, but are now being phased out.

Abbott is currently in Sri Lanka for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting and finalised the deal with President Mahinda Rajapakse as part of diplomatic talks.

Under Australia's hardline asylum-seeker policies, all boat arrivals are transferred to poverty-stricken Papua New Guinea or Nauru in the Pacific for processing. Even if their asylum claims succeed, they will not be settled in Australia.

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Under Australia's hardline asylum-seeker policies, all boat arrivals are transferred to poverty-stricken Papua New Guinea or Nauru in the Pacific for processing. Even if their asylum claims succeed, they will not be settled in Australia.

Really? I thought that had fallen by the wayside after the elections!

[topsidesoul]

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@*ibis wrote:

why dont the poor persecuted tamils flee to tamil nada?

easy peesy

oh thats right no welfare

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You could watch this, but I guess you will not.

People fleeing death = dole bludgers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mbl-Elax9uo

[topsidesoul]

We are also paying 2 million tax payer dollars  to fix up each patrol boat for them.

[*ibis]

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@topsidesoul wrote:

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@*ibis wrote:

why dont the poor persecuted tamils flee to tamil nada?

easy peesy

oh thats right no welfare

---

You could watch this, but I guess you will not.

People fleeing death = dole bludgers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mbl-Elax9uo

---

what does that have do do with what i asked?

[topsidesoul]

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@*ibis wrote:

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@topsidesoul wrote:

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@*ibis wrote:

why dont the poor persecuted tamils flee to tamil nada?

easy peesy

oh thats right no welfare

---

You could watch this, but I guess you will not.

People fleeing death = dole bludgers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mbl-Elax9uo

---

what does that have do do with what i asked?

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You classed these people as escaping to Australia because there is no welfare.

This doco shows that your statment my be untrue opinion and some of these people  may have a reason to be fearful.

[*ibis]

You classed these people as escaping to Australia because there is no welfare

in your mind maybe

why dont tamils go to  places like tamil nada? easy trip

why go to canada and australia?

[*crikey*mate*]

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@spotweldersfriend wrote:
Lucky there's no refugees coming here from Denmark.Tone would be gift wrapping the opera house.

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he better not! at least not in the next 45 days I sold that on eBay last week, right after the harbour bridge! and I don't want an INR opened up against me!

[topsidesoul]

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@*ibis wrote:

You classed these people as escaping to Australia because there is no welfare

in your mind maybe

why dont tamils go to  places like tamil nada? easy trip

why go to canada and australia?

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Probably because  the sympathy for the LTTE is has only come about recently?

 Rajiv Gandhi’s the former priminister was assasinated in that area in 91 and  some Indian's still remember  that a  LTTE member carried out the bombing.

So why would any Tamil travel to live in that province?

[i-need-a-martini]

Hmm. I haven't heard about this so perhaps I am missing something.

But given the persecution that Tamils face in Sri Lanka, wouldn't giving the Sri Lankan government means to keep it's oppressed in the country akin to Australia assisting them in the persecution of Tamils??

Surely, Abbott would have been smarter to give those boats to the Indonesians who are grossly under resourced to manage the boats leaving their shores?

If someone understands the reasoning to give Sri Lanka rather than Indonesia the boats, please explain it to me.

[*crikey*mate*]

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@i-need-a-martini wrote:

Hmm. I haven't heard about this so perhaps I am missing something.

But given the persecution that Tamils face in Sri Lanka, wouldn't giving the Sri Lankan government means to keep it's oppressed in the country akin to Australia assisting them in the persecution of Tamils??

Surely, Abbott would have been smarter to give those boats to the Indonesians who are grossly under resourced to manage the boats leaving their shores?

If someone understands the reasoning to give Sri Lanka rather than Indonesia the boats, please explain it to me.

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i don't know and I don't want to get into a political war over it, but maybe 2 boats don't make a difference to what the Indonesians are doing (are they doing anythhing?)

Maybe the 2 boats will make a difference and help the sri lankans - maybe at least one source can be stopped? maybe if it works on a small scale, indonesia might come on board  - you know, start small, see how it goes, the when you have that system sorted out - expand?

plus from what i read here, indonesia isn't really doing too much to help - but from the article in this thread it looks like sri lanka is trying? maybe the 2 boats will make a big difference. maybe they won't, time will tell, but better to fail ith just 2 boats then 10 or however many it would take to make a difference to the indonesian flow

maybe PM did offer them to Indo, and they wouldn't agree to use them in the manner intended? I don't know - but it is something

"Australia is providing training with the patrol boats, which will operate alongside the Sri Lankan Navy's existing capability to intercept people-smuggling efforts originating in Sri Lankan waters," Abbott's office said in a statement.

"Our cooperation with Sri Lanka in the region is important as it is effective.

"Sri Lanka provides strong support against people-smuggling operations and Australian agencies work closely with their Sri Lankan counterparts."

Sri Lankan police have arrested dozens of people for organising illegal boat trips to Australia, including several naval personnel in an embarrassment for Colombo which had maintained there was no senior level official collusion with the smugglers.

[i-need-a-martini]

I understand that my*mum.

But the one thing that we do know about Sri Lankan boat people (who make up our biggest proportion of boat people)  is that they are most likely to be Tamils fleeing persecution in their own country. 

So in effect (as I understand it) we are helping the Sri Lankan government recapture people that they are persecuting.

So, with the gift of our Navy boats, the Sri Lankan government can now more easily capture those people that were fleeing from the Sri lankan government in the first place.

That makes no sense to me.

If those people are captured using our boats and 'silenced' in a way that the Sri Government likes best, are we assiting in the genocide of these people?