On 22 March 2006, the West Papuan asylum seekers, including the seven children, were granted Temporary Protection Visas. There were 36 adults and seven children in the group, processed on Christmas Island after transfer from Darwin. The children were held in community accommodation. They are being resettled in Melbourne.
Above: Celebrating the announcement of their visas.
Kaye Bernard, Chilout supporter in WA writes:
- One of the West Papuan protection visa recipients, a little 4 year old girl named Anika (phonetic) has been flown 20,000 kms+ since she arrived on mainland Australia aboard a canoe. This is a direct result of the unnecessary adherance to the Government's offshore detention policy. Does PM thinks his "frequent flyer" offshore detention policy was really appropriate in these circumstances?"
ChilOut welcomes the news that the West Papuan asylum seekers, including 7 children, who were being held in immigration detention on Christmas Island have been granted Temporary Protection Visas (TPVs). We acknowledge the government for doing the right thing in granting protection to the West Papuans. Australia�s relationship with Indonesia has barely recovered from our actions in supporting East Timor's move to independence. It is wonderful that we have not bowed to pressure, but have stood up for what is right.
While we continue to campaign for permanent protection for all recognised refugees and question why the West Papuan party was taken to Christmas Island at all, the asylum system has largely been allowed to function as it was intended. The group can now get on, in the short term, with their lives in safety. They do not have to face the trauma of years of indefinite detention, a fate that so many other recent arrivals with asylum claims have suffered, including a West Timorese family who remain on Christmas Island.
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Above: The flag of West Papua.
Left: This is the sign that appeared on the boat of the West Papuans. The picture was taken in Darwin on 23 January 2006.
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Below: Children detained on Christmas Island. .
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Information on West Papua and the asylum seekers
- Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization - West Papua
- Free West Papua website
- Project Safecom West Papuan background page
Look for the article by Corey Bousen with pictures from Damian Barker of the West Papuans at their landing site, 30km north of Weipa. - West Papua updates from Sen. Andrew Bartlett's web diary
News stories
West Papuan refugees prepare to settle in Melbourne
Now that they've been granted Temporary Protection Visas here, the 42 asylum seekers are preparing to settle in Melbourne. The group, mainly made of up activists who want an independent nation of West Papua, arrived at Cape York in January. They were taken to Christmas Island, where most were held at the detention centre, and some were allowed to live in the community. Some of the group have been in Perth for health checks, and David Weber went to see them.
Indonesia MP slams West Papua visas
Jakarta had been calling for the boatload of asylum seekers to be sent back to Indonesia but Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone today announced 42 of the 43 Papuans who landed at Cape York in January have received temporary protection visas (TPV). They would be relocated from Christmas Island to Melbourne, Senator Vanstone said.
Asylum seekers plead for protection
The leader of the 43 West Papuan asylum seekers on Christmas Island has made a direct appeal to the Australian public for protection. [...] "We need protection from the Australian Government" � a reference to the group's wait to find out if their asylum applications will be accepted by the Immigration Department.
$700,000 to transfer West Papuans to Christmas Island
"These asylum seekers should have been allowed to live on mainland Australia instead the Government transferred them four thousand kilometres to Christmas Island at an estimated cost of $700,000," Senator Nettle said. [...] These figures confirm that the government is still willing to squander massive amounts of public money to maintain a hardline image in relation to asylum seekers.
Greens query Jakarta Papuan claim
Indonesia's ambassador to Australia, Teuku Mohammad Hamzah Thayeb, today said there was no reason for the West Papuans to seek asylum as they were not criminals. Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono also has guaranteed the group's safety should they return. But Australian Greens senator Kerry Nettle said Mr Thayeb's assurance's should not be believed.
West Papua: Asylum Seekers 'Fleeing Persecution'
Because he fled with his young family, Mr. Wainggai is allowed to live in a house on Christmas Island, with no guards, and can talk freely. "We are here because we are pressure under Indonesia Government military. We are target from military of Indonesia to killing us and then plenty people now in West Papua also they under pressure of military Government of Indonesia," he said. Mr. Wainggai says it took six weeks for his group of 43 to sail in an outrigger from the northern side of Papua province, around the island and into the Gulf of Carpentaria, where they were lost for four days in rough seas with no food or water. "If we came to Australia, I know true in Australia Government have to calling international community to look for what happened in West Papua. We have to solve problem in West Papua, political rights," he said.
Papuan asylum seekers fear for families
"When they contacted their families on Saturday evening they heard from their families that they were being terrorised, that's the word they used, by Indonesian security forces that had come over from Jakarta." [Senator Kerry Nettle]
Papuans tell of torture
A senior immigration source said the 43 asylum seekers, who arrived by boat in Australia 12 days ago, had a "very strong case" to be granted refugee status, possibly within weeks. "Some of what has come out of the interviews has been absolutely heart-wrenching," the source said. The testimony includes vicious bashings while in prison and attacks on villages and livestock in retaliation for the Papuans' agitating for independence.
Kids dumped under guard offshore: Giant leap backwards for Prime Minister
"At the moment all the asylum seeker children are held under guard and isolated as a direct result of a sharp degree of inflexiblity by the Govenrment, reminiscent of the days before a 3 year old born in detention named Naomi Leong coupled with the Vivian Alvarez and Cornelia Rau tragedies that blew open the problems with the implementation of a bad set of Immigration laws." said Mrs Bernard
West Papua: Asylum Seekers Move to Christmas Island Deplorable
[Rob Wesley Smith, the Darwin spokesman for "Australians for a Free West Papua"] says "It's quite shocking really that people who've come to Australia for political asylum and it's quite clear from the sign on their boat and so on and what we know about them, that they then get sent on a seven-hour Hercules flight almost to the door of Jakarta - get them as far away from people who might help them in Australia," he said. [...] "There is plenty of accommodation in Australia, in fact there is empty accommodation in Darwin and we offered to accommodate them anyway and to send them out to Christmas Island is a farce."