Those Refugees Again

Just as Christmas approaches Australia is preparing to accept as few as possible of the Refugees it resuced in Indonesian waters. But even this does not sem to satisfy the Sri Lankans who obviously believe that it is completely safe for the Tamil minority, defeated recently in the final onslaught of their civil war, to stay put in Sri Lanka.

Their bitter experience would suggest otherwise and the fact that all have met the criteria to be regarded as Refugees suggests that the Official line in Sri Lanka is at best a distortion of the truth.

I wrote to the Editor of the Australian:

The views expressed in Paul Maley's report by the Sri Lankan High Commissioner, Senaka Walgampaya, that Australia's decision to take in the refugees it rescued with the Oceanic Viking "send a bad message" demonstrates the obvious truth that the losers in the recently concluded civil war in Sri Lanka cannot safely stay there.

Since all those rescued were bona fide refugees it is clear that life for them in Sri Lanka is impossible because of the perscution etc that they are subjected to, yet Mr Walgampaya believes they should stay and not be given any comfort or encouragement to leave.

He seems to prefer that those who leave Sri Lanka be left to wallow in impoverishment in refugee camps anywhere else in the world rather than be given safe haven in a safe country.

Australia has been the beneficiary of migration from Sri Lanka for more than 50 years. Providing safe haven for these refugees is not going to change the balance of things in our place.

We shall see if it is published.