Sarah Stephen
A group of 16 Afghan asylum seekers stranded on the Indonesian island of Lombok ended a seven-day hunger strike on January 14. The hunger strikers agreed to finish their protest after a meeting with UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) protection officer Shinji Kubo.
Kubo agreed to review their cases based on the most up-to-date information about the situation in Afghanistan and informed the asylum seekers that the reassessments would be finalised by March 1.
The hunger strike began after the UNHCR completed a second review of their cases, ruling that they were not eligible for asylum in a third country. In a January 11 email message to refugee supporters in Australia, the Afghan hunger strikers wrote: "UNHCR is encouraging us to go back to Afghanistan, we are deeply frightened... Therefore we had no other options to choose and to get the attention of the world except sewing lips and hunger strike".
Four of the hunger strikers sewed their lips together as part of the protest.
"We seek asylum in all safe countries of the world", the message continued. "We want to live like humans and need humanity like you and millions of people of the world."
According to the January 13 Australian, UNHCR protection officer Tony Garcia said 31 of the Afghan asylum seeker cases were being reviewed in light of new information they had submitted and developments in Afghanistan.
Australian media reported that the refugees had tried unsuccessfully to get to Australia by boat. This is not true. They did reach Australian territory and asked for asylum.
Based on detailed accounts of the Afghans' attempts to seek asylum in Australia, refugee advocates have confirmed that the hunger strikers were among a boatload of Afghan asylum seekers who reached Ashmore Reef on October 12, 2001, aboard the MV Harapanidah, dubbed by the Australian government, using its new post-Tampa lingo, as SIEV 5 (suspected illegal entry vessel number 5).
After being held on their overcrowded boat in the hot sun for eight days, they were told by the Australian navy that they would be taken to a refugee camp in Australia. This was a lie. The navy towed their boat back to the waters of Indonesia, near Roti Island.
The asylum seekers were horrified that they had been returned to Indonesia, and they asked for an explanation. According to their account, the navy replied with "electric sticks". The Afghans initially refused to leave the naval vessel to return to their unseaworthy boat, and were severely beaten and attacked with cattle prods. They still have photos of the bruises they received.
The asylum seekers noted that on a number of occasions, some of navy crew were weeping at the treatment of the Afghans.
Navy personnel disabled the boat's engine, and took the oil and generator from the boat so that the Afghans could not make another journey to Australia. If the boat had not been discovered by Indonesian fishers, 240 asylum seekers might have suffered the same fate as those on the SIEV-X.
In October 2001, the vessel dubbed SIEV-X (X for unknown), carrying at least 400 passengers, was forced back into Indonesian waters by the Australian navy. That same day the boat sank, killing 353 asylum seekers.
The government claims that Australia is a "compassionate country" which accepts many thousands of refugees every year — those waiting patiently "in the queue". It also claims to make every effort to circumvent the "evil" trade of people smuggling. Why, then, in the last few years, has not one refugee been accepted by Australia from the Indonesian "queue"? Many are assessed to be refugees by the UNHCR, but wait years for a resettlement country. Clearly, this abandonment of refugees on Australia's doorstep pushes them directly into the arms of people smugglers.
To read more about the asylum seekers stranded in Lombok, visit .
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, January 21, 2004.
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