Australia prepares for influx of Tamil asylum seekers
Updated
The scale of the humanitarian crisis in the war torn areas of Sri Lanka is immense.
The United Nations estimates that up to 300 thousand people have been displaced by the fighting. Most of those people are Tamils, an ethnic group that has complained for decades about being discriminated against in Sri Lanka. The Australian government is reportedly worried about a potential influx of Tamil asylum-seekers and has sent officials to Columbo to work with the Sri Lankan Government, particularly over the threat of people-smuggling.
The Tamil community in Australia is pleading for authorities to show compassion and to allow Tamils to start a better life in Australia.
Presenter: Simon Santow
Speakers: "Victor", a member of the Tamil community in Australia; Stephen Smith, Australian Foreign Minister
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SIMON SANTOW: "Victor" came to Australia 25 years ago as an economic migrant, bringing valuable skills to his adopted homeland. But he's always kept a keen eye on the plight of his fellow Tamils back in Sri Lanka and at the moment he feels the aftermath of the conflict very personally.
VICTOR: I have lost my brother's daughter and his granddaughter, and my uncles and cousins - six of them.
SIMON SANTOW: They have all died in this conflict?
VICTOR: Yes.
SIMON SANTOW: Have you been able to be in touch with your relatives in Sri Lanka?
VICTOR: Only when they came to the camp in Vavuniya.
SIMON SANTOW: What have they said to you about how they are at the moment?
VICTOR: They have said they are undergoing terrible atrocity. All what they do is have to stand in the queue whole day for a piece of bread.
SIMON SANTOW: Victor prefers to use an assumed name because he's received threats in Australia over the years for speaking out on behalf of his community. He's doing his best to use legal means to get his surviving relatives out of Sri Lanka but he warns that may not be enough.
VICTOR: I'm trying to see whether I can sponsor them. That's what I'm trying now at the moment. They can't live anymore there, so they are trying in different ways.
SIMON SANTOW: You mention different ways, Victor. If they can't do it legally, would you expect them to even pay for it? To talk to people smugglers, to try and leave and arrive in Australia by boat?
VICTOR: Any man will go to any extent to save his life.
SIMON SANTOW: AM understands that the Australian Government is so concerned about people smuggling on a large scale, it has sent officials to Sri Lanka to work with the Government there on prevention strategies. The Foreign Minister Stephen Smith won't comment on that but he says the sheer scale of the displacement in Sri Lanka is cause for concern.
STEPHEN SMITH: One of the things we're looking at very closely are the so-called push factors - what is forcing or pressing people to look afar?
And of course with a terrible conflict in Sri Lanka, one of the things we are worried about is that creating or causing additional push factors which will see more people from Sri Lanka seeking to come to Australia.
SIMON SANTOW: Australia hasn't settled on the make-up of its intake of humanitarian refugees this year but figures obtained by AM show that the numbers of Tamils granted protection in Australia has risen dramatically in the last five years.
In 2004 it was less than 40 and this year it's already close to 500. The number may be relatively large but it's less than one per cent of the Tamil population in Australia and tiny when compared with the overflowing refugee camps in Sri Lanka.
Victor says he's hopeful the Australian Government will respond compassionately.
VICTOR: The Immigration Minister should be able to help us in many ways, so I plea that he should help us.
