| Asylum-seekers send messages in bottle to Kevin Rudd - 'We'd rather die than go ashore here' |
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The Australian today published messages sent by 78 Asylum seekers in bottles to Chief of Australian Government or Kevin Rudd. The report said, " In the letters, addressed to "the Honourable Chief of Australian Government", they promised to uphold Australian law should they be resettled. "Until now we heard that your country is a humanitarian country and also the refugee can restart their new life with freedom in your country," one letter said. "If your country don't want find us a good solution better we will close our life in here," the unsigned letter said. "
Full Text of News Simon Kearney, Tanjung Pinang | October 28, 2009 The Australian visited the ship, anchored in the South China Sea 10km southeast of the island of Bintan, yesterday morning to find the Sri Lankans in an open area below the top deck at the stern. They told their story by throwing messages in plastic bags tied to empty plastic water bottles into the water. Three messages were written in Indonesian and a fourth, containing this chilling threat, was written in English. "If your country don't want find us a good solution better we will close our life in here," the unsigned letter said. The asylum-seekers were able to throw three messages in bottles overboard before Customs officials herded them away from the side. Another man managed to break away from the cordon and threw a fourth message in a bottle before the group was moved to an upper deck. Shortly afterwards, the group, shepherded by Customs officers, was seen walking in single file to a covered area on the upper deck. The Oceanic Viking has been anchored off Bintan for two days. Yesterday Indonesian immigration officials and an Australian Customs officer boarded the ship. They were seen holding a meeting on the back deck with other Customs officials already on board. As the afternoon wore on, children were heard crying on board the vessel, then a woman appeared on the top deck at the stern with a baby in her arms and three children peered over the top of the railings. The messages thrown overboard by the asylum-seekers detailed how there were 78 of them on board, including five children and five women, including an elderly lady. In the letters, addressed to "the Honourable Chief of Australian Government", they promised to uphold Australian law should they be resettled. "Until now we heard that your country is a humanitarian country and also the refugee can restart their new life with freedom in your country," one letter said. The letters state that the Sri Lankans are seeking asylum in Australia due to the war between the Sri Lankan government and the defeated Tamil Tigers. "That's why we escaped from Sri Lanka and then came to other countries," the English-language letter said. "Please don't force us to (go) back to Sri Lanka or other countries because we hope and believe that your country will allow us to restart our new life in your country." One of the letters written in Indonesian says the asylum-seekers do not want to get off the Oceanic Viking. "We were in the ocean between the two countries, our boat was damaged. We asked for help from Australian Customs. When they rescue us, usually they take us straight to Australia, but this time they brought us to Indonesian territory. We don't want to get off (the boat)," it said. Later in the afternoon a group of three men threw another letter overboard saying they had been arrested by Australia. Source: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26270388-5013871,00.html |
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