MELBOURNE, April 11 – Sri Lankans who come to Australia without meeting requirements of the refugee convention will be sent straight back home, Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare says. Sri Lanka’s high commissioner to Australia said on Wednesday that his country would welcome asylum seeker boats turned around by Australian authorities.
Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe’s comments came after the arrival in the West Australian port of Geraldton on Tuesday of a fishing boat carrying 66 suspected asylum seekers, thought to be from Sri Lanka, who are currently being questioned in Australia. The message to such people was very clear, Clare said.
“If you’re coming from Sri Lanka and you’re not a refugee you’ll get flown back home,” he told the Seven Network. Clare said the government had already flown about 1,000 people back to Sri Lanka in the last few months and was continuing to work with Sri Lankan authorities.
This had reduced the number of unauthorised arrivals, he said.
“The prospect of drowning hasn’t put people off but the risk of being flown home in a couple of days has stopped people,” Clare said. Admiral Samarasinghe says he expects the 66 people from the latest arrival to be sent back to Sri Lanka and denies there are widespread cases of human rights abuse there.
Clare said initial inquiries about why the boat took the route it did suggested it wanted to get to New Zealand, and not the Australian mainland.
BERNAMA
