The Age and The Australian reported about 77 asylum seekers arriving Australia and full text of the next report is below.  Sri Lankan Tamil Community Leaders in Australia for media comment on this incident can be arranged via  .

Scores of new asylum seekers detected
Yuko Narushima, August 14, 2009

SOME 77 asylum seekers are heading to Christmas Island, raising concerns that detainees have inadequate access to mental health care as the remote detention centre fills up. The most recent boat arrivals, believed to be fleeing Sri Lanka, will join 660 asylum seekers waiting for health, identity and security checks on the island.

That number includes 66 women and 21 children, who are kept out of the most prison-like facility, which holds 800. Yesterday, Professor Louise Newman from the Monash University Centre for Developmental Psychiatry & Psychology said the island was housing a fragile population, many of whom had fled political persecution and torture.

''Christmas Island is clearly remote and there are significant challenges in providing for the mental health needs of these people, particularly unaccompanied young people,'' she said.

Professor Newman recently visited the island and is preparing a report on the mental health of detainees. ''I'm not in the view that we should turn detention centres into hospitals,'' she said. ''We have to make sure that we can identify those suffering psychiatric disability and get them into appropriate treatment facilities.''

Immigration Minister Chris Evans said worsening situations in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Iraq and Pakistan had forced millions of desperate people to flee their own countries and seek safety.

''We will continue to see boat arrivals in Australia while these conflicts are ongoing and while people continue to flee war and persecution,'' he said.

Since the Rudd Government came to power in November 2007, 24 boats have brought 1051 refugees to Australia.

A spokesman for Senator Evans said there were mental health nurses, a resident psychologist and specialist trauma and torture counsellors available for people in detention on Christmas Island.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/scores-of-new-asylum-seekers-detected-20090813-ejuu.html


Boat carrying 77 Tamils intercepted
Paul Maley and Nicolas Perpitch | August 14, 2009
Article from:  The Australian

A BOAT carrying 77 suspected asylum-seekers has been intercepted by border protection authorities 21 nautical miles north of Christmas Island.The boat -- the 18th to arrive this year -- was intercepted early yesterday by the patrol boat HMAS Pirie after being spotted by an RAAF P-3 Orion.

Those on board are thought to be Sri Lankan Tamils, sources told The Australian. They have been taken to Christmas Island, where they will be subject to health, character and security checks. On board were 75 adult males, one woman and one minor. They will join 660 asylum-seekers already on the island.

ASIO is believed to be subjecting arriving Tamils to an unusually rigorous screening process after the defeat of the Tamil Tiger separatist movement in May. It is understood to be concerned at the prospect of ex-Tamil fighters passing themselves off as refugees. The last three boats to arrive have been carrying Sri Lankan Tamils. They are understood to have arrived courtesy of a people-smuggling syndicate operating out of Malaysia. The Tamils fly from Columbo to Kuala Lumpur then sail north around the northern tip of Sumatra into international waters. The route by-passes the heavily trafficked Malacca Straits, where they would be subject to interception.

Yesterday, Tamil community leader the Reverend John Jegasothy said there was great consternation within the Tamil diaspora at the fate of Sri Lankan Tamils. "There are stories coming out that people are dying in the hospitals in hundreds every week and people go missing every week," Mr Jegasothy told The Australian.

The BBC last month reported that up to 300,000 Tamils displaced by the war remained in refugee camps.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25926731-25837,00.html