Australian ministers criticised over Oceanic Viking detentions

Updated November 20, 2009 20:31:01

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has repeatedly pledged his government won't imprison women and children asylum seekers, distancing himself from the approach of his predecessor, John Howard, but his ministers are having to defend their position, because the Sri Lankan Tamil women and children recently disembarked from an Australian customs vessel in Indonesia, are locked up. Amnesty International says that under international norms, children especially should never be put in detention, and has urged Australia to act on the case quickly.

Presenter: Linda Mottram, Canberra Correspondent
Speakers: Kevin Rudd, Australian Prime Minister; Sarah Hanson-Young, Australian Greens Senator; Simon Crean, Australian Trade Minister; Brendan O'Connor, Australian Home Affairs Minister; Anthony Albanese, Australian Infrastructure Minister; Irene Khan, director general, Amnesty International

MOTTRAM: The 78 asylum seekers who held out for a month on board the Australian customs vessel the Oceanic Viking, are now being held at the Australian funded detention centre at Tanjung Pinang in Indonesia. And as they settled in, the Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was on his feet in the Australian Parliament, criticising his conservative predecessors over their treatment of earlier asylum seekers.

RUDD: And on top of that, the sorry record of women and children behind razor wire.

MOTTRAM: The women and children at Tanjung Pinang are not behind razor wire, but they are behind bars and a padlocked door, in a separate part of the centre to the men. They say they were promised by Australia that they'd be given a house near the centre to stay in. Reporters at the scene had quickly revealed their conditions, with large photos of the Sri Lankans at their barred window gracing Australian newspaper frontpages, as news broadcasts played the pleas of the children to be able to play, interspersed with chants of the word, Australia. Its all put enormous political pressure on the Rudd government and has been seized on by asylum seeker advocates. Australian Green's Senator Sarah Hanson-Young.

HANSON-YOUNG: We don't think that it's acceptable in Australia to detain children behind bars yet in Indonesia it seems completely ok. It's something the Prime Minister can't hide behind. He needs to stop these words of confusion, be upfront and honest with what's happened and think about how he's going to address it in the long-term.

MOTTRAM: Government ministers scrambled to explain. Trade minister Simon Crean.

CREAN: It turns out it's a kitchen with accommodation above it has got bars that's unfortunate because our policy is that the women and children, a should be separated, they are, they shouldn't be behind razor wire or bars, they are behind bars but these are Indonesian facilities.

MOTTRAM: That was followed up by Australia's Home Affairs minister, Brendan O'Connor.

O'CONNOR: This is in Indonesia, the Indonesian authorities determine these matters but clearly it was important to ensure that women and children are in a separate area - and that's occurred.

MOTTRAM: A third government minister, Anthony Albanese, also described the situation as Indonesia's responsibility and went on to cast doubt on the validity of claims that photos proved the nature of the conditions.

ALBANESE: I am not in a position, and nor are you, from a photograph to determine the conditions.

MOTTRAM: Amnesty International's director general, Irene Khan, who's currently touring Australia, criticised the way Australia has dealt with the case in the first place.

KHAN: bilateral deals are always problematic and that's because Inodnesia is not a party to the refugee convention, Indonesia has a practice of detaining asylum seekers, so it's very difficult to do that kind of bilateral deal and ensure the people are properly protected in Indonesia.

MOTTRAM: And Ms Khan says while she can't verify the precise details of the current case, international standards say children should not be detained at all, and that asylum seekers should only be detained as a last resort.

KHAN: Women and children should not be kep in detention, they should be moved out immediately, put into proper houses and got out of Tanjung Pinang. I've been to Tanjung Pinang. It's not the kind of place where you would want a group of refugees to stay for too long.

MOTTRAM: Ms Khan has also called on Australia to increase its intake of refugees, and shortly after she made that call, there was news that the 24th boat since the start of September had been intercepted in Australian waters, carrying more of those Irene Khan describes as desperate enough to take to rickety boats.