Boats

Two boats: “Merak” & “Ocean Viking”
From the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre
http://www.asrc.org.au/
“Merak”* is anchored off the Indonesian port of Merak and has 255 people on board including “Alex”- (see Senator Fielding Comments below- cant even get his boats straight in this article in The Australian)
These people came recently from Sri Lanka- we are trying to get exact numbers but we believe that over 90% have come out of the camps
including Menik Farm.They are deeply traumatised and fear being returned
to camps if they hand them selves over to the Indonesian government. 3 people from this boat have been hospitalised and 5 people with little
children have left the boat because of the children. Last week water was restricted and no medical care given for conjunctivitis which was
sweeping through the boat. Over 30 cases reported on Friday. The good news is that on Saturday Doctors arrived and provided treatment and the water restrictions were lifted. IOM and indonesian officers are pressuring the people to disembark. However after living in camps in SL
these people are not ready to commit to camps in Indonesia. This boat has dropped out of the media gaze- please watch carefully as they need
us to ensure that their rights are respected.
* the people on the boat are calling it the “Merak”

“Ocean Viking” has 78 people on board. 37 of these people hold UNHCR refugee cards and most have been in Indonesia for years waiting for
aplace to call home. They are recognised as refugees but this is no guarantee of resettlement. Refugees have been warehoused in Indonesia
since 2001 by first the Howard and then the Rudd Government. Eventually people realise that they must help themselves as no one else will help
them. This is why the boats will continue to come from Indonesia where there are currently 2,107 people registered with UNHCR who are going
nowhere. There are 50 people in Christmas island detention centres who hold UNHCR refugee cards.

*RESETTLEMENT FACTS
Australian resttlement from Indonesia
2008-2009 35 people
2007-2008 89 people
2006-2007 32 people*

Total resettlement 2001 – 2009 was 460 people an average of 50 per year.
You do not need to be a mathematical genius to work out the odds of resettlement.
Life is Indonesia means no work, noschool even for primary school children and no future. People are fed and waterd and sheltered by IOM
at Australia’s expense. However people are not cattle and need more in life than this which is why they take matters into their own hands-
wouldn’t we?

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,24897,26289589-601,00.html

Senator Fielding said today it was the first he’d heard of the development but questioned whether the group, whose spokesman is a man
called Alex, really were legitimate asylum-seekers.

“I remember the first phone call we took from, I think Alex, his English wasn’t so good,” he told Network Ten.

“Within two weeks his English is better than mine, so I’m not so sure how genuine some of these people are.”

NOTE Alex explained that he had worked in India in a call centre and had “Accent Training”.

Pamela Curr
Campaign Coordinator
Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC)
12 Batman Street Melbourne 3003
03 93266066/ fax 0393265199/mob 0417517075