What are you going to do now Mr Morrison??

[i-need-a-martini]

The High Court has issued an interim injunction preventing the transfer to Sri Lanka of 153 asylum seekers who are missing on a boat bound for Australia.

The injunction, granted late on Monday in Sydney, applies at least until a hearing resumes on Tuesday afternoon at 2.15pm.

The asylum seekers are represented by Ron Merkel, QC, who argued to Justice Susan Crennan that the transfer was illegal because the asylum seekers had been deprived the ability to have their claims properly assessed.

But it is not clear whether the transfer has already taken place because Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has refused to comment and his lawyers told the court they had not received instructions.

Sources said lawyers were representing the asylum seekers through their families and they have not been in touch with them since contact was lost more than a week ago.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/high-court-grants-injunction-over-asylum-seeke...

All you have to do to stop this kind of thing is to communicate. It can't be that hard surely?

[boris1gary]

so its off to the full bench of the high court...

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/08/asylum-seeker-high-court-challenge-against-handover-to-...

[the_great_she_elephant]

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@cherples wrote:

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@paintsew007 wrote:

replying to cherples who said:

Overheard at supermarket checkout.... checkout operator to customer

Send them all back.... I still don't know what they're coming here for anyway......

..........................................................................................................................................................................................................

sad. .....though understandable if this person does not have any comprehension as to the 'why'

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Yes and easy to see why the send em back vote is meaningless. How can anyone give an informed answer if they don't have a clue what the question is about.

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I came across this recently and I think it sums up with heartbreaking clarity the attitude of many people towards asylum seekers.

It is from an essay called Marakech by George Orwell.

When you walk through a town like this – two hundred thousand inhabitants, of whom at least twenty thousand own literally nothing except the rags they stand up in – when you see how the people live, and still more how easily they die, it is always difficult to believe that you are walking among human beings.

All colonial empires are in reality founded upon that fact. The people have brown faces – besides, there are so many of them! Are they really the same flesh as yourself? Do they even have names? Or are they merely a kind of undifferentiated brown stuff, about as individual as bees or coral insects? They rise out of the earth, they sweat and starve for a few years, and then they sink back into the nameless mounds of the graveyard and nobody notices that they are gone. 

[i-need-a-martini]

Orwell hit the nail on the head. As he so often did.

And of course now it is thousands time worse because we are seeing so many more images than he would have been confronted with back in his day.

[boris1gary]

maybe somebody could explain what the australian navy/borderforce/secretkeeepers were doing taking anyone into custody outside of australian waters? Is that piracy?

[debra9275]

If they weren't in Australian waters, doesn't it make arresting them and holding them on a prison ship even more illegal?

[boris1gary]

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@debra9275 wrote:
If they weren't in Australian waters, doesn't it make arresting them and holding them on a prison ship even more illegal?

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yes i was wondering that, 

[the_great_she_elephant]

Contiguous is defined in the Oxford Dictionary as "sharing a common border or touching". I guess to the Australian Government that means," It's in our territorial waters enough to let usarrest  them, but ouside our territorial waters enugh enough for them not to be able to claim protection from us" -or  in other words,  heads we win, tails you lose.

[icyfroth]

Update:

Asylum seekers win Sri Lanka reprieve

The 153 asylum seekers fighting a return to Sri Lanka have won an assurance they will not be returned home against their will without 72 hours' notice.

The matter will return to court within 21 days for a directions hearing.

Refugee rights activist Ian Rintoul believes the asylum seekers are likely to be sent to Christmas Island but their ultimate destination is far from clear.

Read more at http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/2014/07/08/15/05/boat-never-entered-waters-court-told#70kGJXhdYd...

[boris1gary]

http://www.independentaustralia.net/australia/australia-display/refoulement-most-foul-returning-tami...

Refoulement most foul: Returning Tamils to their persecutors

The Abbott Government feel comfortable flouting the law in the silence of the high seas, but Dr Binoy Kampmark doesn't believe it will be able to maintain such secrecy in front of the High Court.

 Immigration law exists in isolation in Australia.

At least, according to the Abbott Government this is the case. Domestic considerations trump international obligations — unless they pertain to security dictates from Washington or foreign states willing to prevent future asylum seekers from reaching safety. The fate of a particular group of people can be determined by “videolink” or “enhanced screening” at seacomprising a mere four questions.

[monman12]

"Independent" C&P bloggers , sans all the facts, nothing new though.

Refoulement most foul: Returning Tamils to their persecutors

Facts: Of the 41 in the first boat  37 were Sinhalese (ruling party) and 4 Tamils. Apart from possible 5 organisers/crew, 29 adults have now been granted bail by the Galle Magistrates court and 9 children have not been charged

"One of the asylum seekers, Anthony Fernando, 38, told Fairfax Media that he had had been "mistreated" by Australian authorities and given food that was past its expiry date."
"We were ill treated mid sea by Australian authorities. They did not give food that had not gone off," Mr Fernando said.
"I went [to] Australia to find employment and then settle and bring my wife and family."

Another man, Punchi Banda Podinilame, said he had one son, two sons-in-law and seven other relatives on the boat.
He said they had all gone to Australia to find employment.

 Food past use by date,  now that must be far worse than refoulement, "crimes against humanity " perhaps.

As for  "refoulement" for what prima facie ppears to be just economic refugees that have not been "tortured or mistreated upon return, I  would suggest it is well in order in these circumstances.

"The International Organisation for Migration has backed the Australian Immigration Minister’s view that some of the Sri Lankan's arriving in Australia by boat are economic migrants, not refugees."

"Last week, Australia's immigration minister Chris Bowen sent 26 men back to Sri Lanka who had arrived by boat, suggesting they were economic refugees."

Note the name :  Chris Bowen (Circus in town)

Whoops!