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Letter to John Howard on Papuan asylum seekers

TAPOL - January 27, 2006

The Hon John Howard MP
Prime Minister of Australia
C/o Australian High Commission UK
Strand London WC2B 4LA

27 January 2006

Dear Prime Minister Howard,

We write concerning the plight of the 43 men, women and children refugees from West Papua who arrived on the Australian mainland by boat on 18 January.

We note with concern that these asylum seekers have been transported to a detention centre on Christmas Island where they have not yet had access to lawyers or community support groups. We urge your government to return them to the mainland and release them into the community so they can benefit from unhindered access to legal advice, medical care and other necessary assistance as soon as possible.

We trust that the Australian immigration authorities will now consider each claim to asylum on its merits as expeditiously as possible according to international refugee law. The refugees' brave decision to flee their homes and make the dangerous trip across open seas is clearly more than a gesture. It is reasonable to conclude that it is based on a real fear of persecution in their homeland. The human rights abuses suffered by indigenous Papuans, especially those supporting independence from Indonesia, are a matter of record and beyond reasonable dispute.

Just two days after the refugees arrived in Australia, Indonesian troops opened fire on a group of unarmed protestors in West Papua's Paniai district, killing one 13-year-old and seriously wounding two others. Last year, a landmark report on West Papua's incorporation into Indonesia commissioned by the Dutch government, spoke of decades of violent action by the Indonesian military during which 'not a day went by...when no one died or no-one was seriously mistreated'.

We trust that your government will not be influenced by attempts by the authorities in Jakarta to insist that the Papuans should be returned to Indonesia or by veiled threats that granting them asylum could jeopardise Australia's relations with Indonesia. The refugees are entitled to have their claims determined strictly and fairly according to the law and we hope that will now happen without delay.

Yours sincerely,
Paul Barber

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