Australia to decide soon on Papuan asylum seekers
CANBERRA (Reuters): Australia is likely to decide within weeks whether 43 asylum seekers from Indonesia’s troubled Papua province are refugees, the Immigration Department said on Saturday after Jakarta urged Canberra to send them back.
The asylum seekers were found last week on Cape York, Australia’s northernmost point, after sailing for five days in a traditional outrigger with a banner accusing the Indonesian military of conducting genocide in their homeland.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono phoned Australian Prime Minister John Howard on Friday and said the group should not be given political asylum and should be returned to Indonesia. He gave an assurance they would not be prosecuted.
A spokesman for Howard said on Saturday that the prime minister had told Susilo that Australia respected Indonesia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
“The prime minister advised the president that the West Papuans would be dealt with in accordance with Australia’s domestic law and Australia’s international obligations,” the spokesman told Reuters.
Sandi Logan, national communications manager of the Australian Immigration Department, said legal representatives were traveling to Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, where the group are being held, to document the Papuans’ claims.
“The migration agent and legal representative interviews will last most of next week, followed then by a further week’s interviews among (Immigration Department) migration agent staff and the West Papuans,” Logan said.
“So it could be two to three weeks’ time by which time the Department would be in a position to recommend a determination.”
Indonesia has warned Canberra that the issue could damage their strong ties.
Papuan independence activists have campaigned for more than 30 years to break away from Indonesia while a low-level armed rebellion has also simmered. Human rights groups accuse the Indonesian military of widespread abuses there. Jakarta took over Papua from Dutch colonial rule in 1963. In 1969, its rule was formalized in a UN-backed vote by community leaders which was widely criticized as a sham