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An ugly, divisive debate - By Michelle Grattan The Age Political Editor

The problem of asylum seekers led Australia down a dark path last time, a path we appear to be treading again.DESPITE the surge of boat arrivals, only a few weeks ago it seemed inconceivable we could return to the bad days of the asylum-seeker debate. It is still on balance unlikely. But the tone is getting nasty and this is alarming. The Government, worried about its inability to control the water-borne influx - 1700 people so far this year, predominantly Afghans and Sri Lankans - and also about the politics, has launched into both frantic activity and hyped rhetoric.

Sydney Morning Herald today reported that, "Distraught Sri Lankan asylum seekers said they were fleeing ''genocide'' against ethnic Tamils in their country, and expressed shock that the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, had personally intervened to interrupt their journey to Australian shores." One Asylum seeker said, ''We may as well die here. We cannot go back to Sri Lanka,'' said a spokesman for the asylum seekers who gave his name as Alex. ''We are very shocked, so shocked to hear that your Prime Minister wanted to stop us, that he had something to do with this. We are not a boat full of tourists, or people looking for a job. We are people who are running from genocide.''

A Tamil Nadu police head constable and his wife are among four persons booked for allegedly running a prostitution racket in nearby Mettur, police said today.Police arrested two persons, including a 20-year old woman, while carrying out a raid at the constable's house at Cauvery Nagar following a tip-off that he was operating a prostitution racket for the last six months.
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Sri Lanka: Tensions Mount as Camp Conditions Deteriorate - AHRV

Government Should Immediately Release 250,000 Displaced Persons from Illegal Detention
The Sri Lankan government should immediately release the 250,000 displaced Tamil civilians still held in detention camps, Human Rights Watch said on Saturday. Deteriorating conditions, including a shortage of water since October 5, 2009, combined with the prospect of flooding during the imminent monsoon season, have led to rising tensions among camp residents and clashes with the military.

http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200910/r452787_2207570.asx

Almost 260 Sri Lankans aboard a boat moored in Western Java have made a desperate plea to Australia and other countries to consider their bids for asylum, saying returning to Sri Lanka is no longer an option for Tamils who wish to survive.

Please help us and save our lives, we are your children - Nine Year Old Asylum Seeker to Rudd

"Please help us and save our lives, we are your children. Please think of us, please, please," are the plea of a nine-year-old tamil asylum seeker Brindha currently with 260 other Sri Lankans in Indonasia to Australian Prime Ministe Kevin Rudd. "There are people in the [Sri Lankan] camps right now being murdered even today as we speak, as we are sitting comfortably on this boat in the shores of Indonesia, there are still Tamil people in Sri Lanka who are dying every day," Alex said.

Indonasian Daily The Jakarta Post reported that, "top level approach to Indonesia demonstrates Rudd's fear of a voter backlash against his liberal policies toward refugees, which opponents blame for a tenfold explosion in the numbers of asylum-seekers reaching Australia by boat this year - 1,704 so far, compared to last year's total of 161. " It further repoirted, "It would seem a measure of desperation on Rudd's part that he has to be seen to be doing something," Australian National University political scientist Norman Abjorensen said.

OPEN INVITATION from the Human Rights Network to a Public Forum to mark United Nations Day * United Nations Day is 24 October* Human Rights Ignored--Imprisonment and Impunity in Sri Lanka When: Saturday afternoon, 17 October 2009, from 2.30pm Where: Mt Albert War Memorial Hall, 775 New North Rd, Mt Albert, Auckland
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War Crimes in reference to Sri Lanka - A Public Forum in Canada

Centre for War Victims and Human Rights (CWVHR) Holds A Public Forum On War Crimes in reference to Sri Lanka Place : 705 Progress Avenue, Unit 106, Scarborough, ON M1H 2X1 Date and Time: October 15th, Thursday at 7.00 P.M
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260 Sri Lankan asylum-seekers stopped by Rudd threaten to blow up boat in Indonesia

The Australian today reported that, "more than 260 Sri Lankan asylum-seekers were last night threatening to blow up their boat if the Indonesian navy forced them to disembark at the port in Merak after the large cargo boat they were piloting towards Christmas Island broke down." One Asylum seeker told, "We are civilians, not Tamil Tigers. Every day there are Tamils being killed and raped in the refugee camps. Men are blindfolded and shot in the back of the head. In Sri Lanka if you are Tamil there is no opportunity - the government can detain you without cause, and take you to trial without evidence."

".Border Protection Command has successfully intercepted a suspected irregular entry vessel. The Royal Australian Navy patrol boat HMAS Albany, operating under the control of Border Protection Command, intercepted the vessel late yesterday north-west of Ashmore Island. The vessel was initially sighted by a RAAF P3 maritime aircraft, under BPC’s control, and HMAS Albany was directed to immediately intercept it..."

Banks and the Australian Federal Police (AFP) have targeted university students to warn them about money mule scams when seeking holiday employment.The Australian Bankers’ Association (ABA) and the AFP have prepared a fact sheet, ‘Warning to students – don’t get caught by mule scams’. It warns students of the scams which trap them into laundering money for criminals by becoming a money mule.A money mule is someone who allows their bank account to be used to receive stolen funds which are transferred to a designated account (domestic or offshore) using a money-remitting or wire service, minus a commission payment.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rud's decision to call in the Indonesian Navy to repel a boatload of 260 asylum-seekers at the weekend has failed to deter another boat that was intercepted by Border Protection Command last night. There were 56 passengers, including two young children, and two crew on board. They will now be taken to Christmas Island for processing.
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Deteriorating Conditions in the Internment Camps in Sri Lanka

The Australasian Federation of Tamil Associations (AFTA), the umbrella body representing the peak Tamil Associations in across Australia and New Zealand, would like to bring to the attention of the international community, the plight of the 250,000 displaced Tamils still held in detention camps in northern Sri Lanka.

"... AFTA calls on the media to expose the deteriorating plight of the detained internally displaced Tamil people in Sri Lanka and to raise this matter with the Australian and New Zealand Governments and the NGO community so that strong diplomatic action against Sri Lanka is pursued without further delay to avoid another humanitarian catastrophe..."

Indonesian police detained about 260 Sri Lankan migrants in the Sunda Strait while attempting to make their way by wooden boat to Australia, AFP reported. Police and the Indonesian Navy had intercepted the boat in the waters off Krakatoa Island at around dawn, Banten Sea Police director Alex Fauzi Rasad said. "The migrants, including women and children, had set off from (the West Kalimantan province of) Pontianak on October 6 and were heading to Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean off the Australian mainland," he said.

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