Sarah Stephen
Among the 43 West Papuan asylum seekers who were transferred to Christmas Island on January 18 are four family groups. They are living in community detention, under close guard.
A family of West Timorese asylum seekers is living in the house next door to one occupied by a West Papuan family but, according to refugee advocate Kaye Bernard, the West Timorese have been told by the Global Solutions Limited (GSL) guards not to talk to the West Papuans.
Bernard told Green Left Weekly that a West Papuan father and son were flown to Perth on January 20 with suspected tuberculosis. The father has since been released into the community, but the son remains in hospital. Bernard pointed out that this exposes the claim by the immigration department (DIMIA) that it conducted thorough health checks before it flew the asylum seekers to Christmas Island as a lie.
"It's an example of the ongoing bulldust put out by the government. The health checks at Weipa were totally inadequate", Bernard explained. She argued that DIMIA wanted to get the asylum seekers to Christmas Island as quickly as possible and cut whatever corners it needed to.
Bernard has serious concerns about the use of the Christmas Island processing and reception centre to detain asylum seekers for long periods. She visited, and campaigned for the release of, 43 Vietnamese asylum seekers detained there from 2003 to 2005.
"It was designed as a transitional facility for people intercepted at sea", she said. "The facilities aren't there for anything beyond what a GP can provide."
Greens Senator Kerry Nettle, planning a visit to the island on January 29, wasn't given approval to meet with the West Papuans until a few days beforehand.
DIMIA tried hard to find a pretext to bar her from contact with the asylum seekers. First, it argued that the asylum seekers weren't properly health cleared — an embarrassing admission that the department hadn't followed protocols in Weipa.
Second, it claimed that not all the asylum seekers had completed their primary interviews. Yet on January 27 DIMIA admitted that all interviews had been finalised.
The final barrier, which may yet prevent Nettle from speaking directly to the asylum seekers, is the requirement that her name be on the asylum seekers' visitors list, a bizarre catch-22 requirement since the asylum seekers cannot put Nettle's name on their "list" unless they know she's coming.
To date, DIMIA and GSL have barred all supporters, including Australia West Papua Association members, from speaking with the West Papuans.
Refugee advocates are very concerned about the safety and well-being of the West Papuans. According to a January 26 Project SafeCom media release, Australia West Papua Association member Ned Byrne confirmed that a priest in the West Papuan town of Wamena, who was the first political prisoner in West Papua and whose three children are among those who sailed to Australia two weeks ago, has been approached by Indonesian officials with a list of names and asked to confirm that they were on the boat that made it to Australia. The priest felt he had no choice but to confirm the list of names.
Indonesian officials have already tried to gain access to the asylum seekers. On January 18, officials travelled to Weipa to check up on the West Papuans who had just arrived.
It was rumoured that DIMIA gave them access to the asylum seekers, but the department claims that a junior delegation from the Indonesian consulate arrived just a few hours too late. Even if this is true, Bernard points out that their efforts to access the asylum seekers were completely outside diplomatic protocols, unless the Australian government had given them the green light.
It appears likely that, if Indonesian authorities haven't already been given access to the West Papuans, Australian authorities will happily allow them in to interrogate the asylum seekers at some stage.
This is what happened to a family group of seven West Timorese asylum seekers who reached land north of Broome on November 5. They presented themselves to authorities to claim asylum and were taken to Christmas Island after being hidden in Darwin for 10 days.
Bernard, who has spoken with one of the West Timorese men, was told by him that DIMIA officers repeatedly asked whether any of the family wanted access to their embassy. They said no, and explained that this was from whom they were fleeing.
On their third day of detention they were told, "We're now going to let Indonesian embassy officials in to see you. They just want to have a look at you." The Indonesian officials questioned them about their names and where they had come from. The family was frightened and in tears, but said nothing.
Bernard says that she was told by an ABC reporter that DIMIA had informed journalists that two of the West Papuans on Christmas Island has asked for Indonesian consular access. Such claims possibly lay the groundwork for a visit by consular staff.
All the asylum seekers now held on Christmas Island — eight West Timorese and 43 West Papuans — have come to Australia fleeing Indonesian authorities. Bernard said it is incredible that, of all the places they could be detained, the Australian government deems it appropriate to hold them in an offshore detention centre that's five times closer to Indonesia than it is to Australia.
The Project SafeCom media release echoes this point: "The fact that DIMIA has placed Papuan families, men, women and children in staff housing, openly visible from the beach on Christmas Island, places them, as well as their families and relatives in West Papua, in a direct line of fire and in direct danger of being identified by Indonesians", who are able to travel freely to Christmas Island, only 400 kilometres from the coast of Java, under the guise of tourists.
As an aside, Bernard pointed out that the eighth West Timorese man being held on Christmas Island arrived by boat near northern Queensland some time in 2005. She said it was only by chance that she noticed the change in the detention figures, indicating one new arrival on the island. Bernard made sure he received legal assistance but wonders if anyone would have known of his existence if she hadn't pursued the issue. It is a chilling example of the way the Christmas Island detention centre can be used to "disappear" people, she said.
Bernard told GLW: "The West Papuans shouldn't be treated any differently from other asylum seekers. All people seeking asylum should be treated with the utmost respect."
From Green Left Weekly, February 1, 2006.
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