West Papuan Refugees Detained on Remote Australian Island |
| by Red One |
2006-01-20 12:43 AM +0800 |
| 20 January 2006: The 43 Papuan asylum seekers found on Cape York are tonight being flown to an offshore detention facility on Christmas Island... |
Having spent the day in a makeshift detention centre at Weipa in far north Queensland, the group of 30 men, six women and seven children boarded an Air Force Hercules aircraft - the immigration department said in a statement.
The group of independence activists, students and their families from the Indonesian province of Papua spent their first full day in Australia held captive inside a cramped masonry-block building on the outskirts of the tiny mining town of Weipa.
Police stood guard outside the building that held the detainees, who were forced to drape a towel over their heads to shield their identity each time they ventured outside to use the toilet.
DIMIA said: "The men in the group will be accommodated at the Phosphate Hill Detention Centre, while the women and children will be placed in staff housing. The group was also accompanied by a RAAF medical team for the seven-hour flight."
DIMIA said departmental officials would interview the group, assessing their claims for asylum, while at the remote island detention facility - Christmas Island, 2,600km north-west of Perth, WA.
The group will join another group of four men, one woman and two infants from West Timor, who were sent to the island in November 2005.
The West Papuans are believed to have made a claim for political asylum on the grounds they have been persecuted by the Indonesian Government.
There have been calls for the department to grant bridging visas to the
group, allowing them to live in Australia while their cases are examined.
Cape York Uniting Church minister Michelle Cook said she offered to give the children puzzles but police and immigration officials told her they did not need assistance.
"We were just coming in to see whether they needed any support," she said. "They have people in there doing prayers and I wanted them to know that if they needed anything they could give me a call." Members of the Weipa community dropped in teddy bears and toys for the seven children who made the journey.
Tough penalties exist under commonwealth laws for anyone found to have helped people enter Australia illegally. And to those without papers. |
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Christmas Island detention centre reopened - Wikinews, November 22, 2005
'Guantanamo'-style detention facility under construction on Australian Island. Wikinews, November 28, 2005
Papuan refugees in good health
40 Asylum seekers missing off Torres Strait
WEST PAPUA – THE FACTS, NI
Refugees wait for 20 years
Free Papua Movement
Indonesian Human Rights Abuses in West Papua - Indonesia Human Rights Network [PDF]
Papuans sent to Christmas Is - ABC




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