Sir - As an Australian citizen, a permanent resident in Northern Ireland, and the regional manager of Tr≤caire in Northern Ireland, I am deeply concerned by the stance of the Australian government on the plight of the 438 asylum seekers on board the Norwegian container ship Tampa.
The international practice established by the United Nations' 1951 Refugee Convention and 1967 protocol, to both of which Australia is a signatory, is that people rescued at sea should be disembarked at the next port of call, where they should always be admitted, at least temporarily, until their refugee status can be established.
The Tampa has rescued over 400 traumatised men, women and children believed to be from Afghanistan. Many may need medical attention. Rightly, the captain headed for Australia because he knows that refugees are simply imprisoned in Indonesia. Instead of offering even temporary refuge, the Australian government sent three Hercules military aircraft, a Navy frigate and 120 troops.
People in Ireland have supported Tr≤caire's work in Afghanistan since 1996 and Tr≤caire is currently involved in providing food and clean drinking water to 100,000 people in the western Herat region, one of the worst drought-affected areas. We are also working with Afghan refugee women in Pakistan, themselves the primary victims of the hardline Islamic Taliban regime.
Robin Reid, clinical supervisor and social worker with the Sydney-based Service for Treatment And Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Sufferers (STARTTS), says: "Most of the current refugees from Afghanistan are from the Hazara group, the servant class from old Afghanistan. They are the underclass who have suffered the most under the Taliban regime - many have been tortured and brutalised".
Australia and many other countries, including some in Europe, believe they are being overwhelmed by asylum seekers. But the fact is that many nations in Africa and Asia, with far fewer economic resources than Australia or European countries, are hosting larger number of refugees and asylum-seekers for far longer periods of time. Pakistan, a poor country, opened its doors to over 870,000 refugees from Afghanistan last year alone, while Australia agreed to take fewer than 1,400. Australia had a total refugee and asylum-seeker population last year of only 62,579 from all over the world. (UK: 216,003; Ireland: 15,566).
Australia is a country of immigration - a country built on migrants. It enjoys one of the highest standards of living in the world. Perhaps, this is partly due to the work of migrants and settled refugees; certainly it suggests that it is only just and appropriate that Australia should now acts with compassion and a sense of responsibility. - Yours, etc.,
Cameron Bowles, Regional Manager, Tr≤caire, King Street, Belfast 1.