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Posted: 30 Aug 2011 12:41 PM PDT

By Alana Buckley-Carr, The West Australian

Habibullah may not agree with the Malaysia solution but his are exactly the words Immigration Minister Chris Bowen wants to hear: "No, I don't think I would get on a boat if I was sent to Malaysia."

With the High Court set to hand down its decision today into the lawfulness of the Gillard Government's Malaysia solution, Afghan refugee Habibullah said he would never have made the treacherous boat journey if he knew he would be sent straight back to Malaysia.

More than 330 asylum seekers have been in limbo on Christmas Island since the High Court issued an injunction this month, stopping the Government from sending boat people to Malaysia.

Yesterday, Mr Bowen's office refused to speculate on what plans were in place if the deal with Malaysia was found to be unlawful.

Habibullah, a 28-year-old father of two, was granted asylum last month after spending 15 months in detention on Christmas Island and at the Curtin detention centre.

He is now trying to have his wife and two daughters brought to Australia from Iran, where they have lived illegally for years.

In exchange for $US6000, Habibullah was given a false passport and began a series of flights taking him to Bali, before being taken to the rickety wooden boat off a small beach in the dead of night.

"When we got on the boat it was dark, we couldn't see the boat very clearly," Habibullah said. "The day after the sun rise, we saw the boat was very small, very old."

The former carpet weaver spent two months on Christmas Island before being among the first detainees to be transferred to the refurbished Curtin detention centre last year.

But conditions were far from ideal. He was never taken outside the centre in 13 months at Curtin and grew increasingly frustrated by changes in Government policy.

"One week there was one policy, the next week another policy," Habibullah said.

"They don't process cases in the order they arrived. Everyone gets angry when you are limited to a specific place where you can't go outside, especially when you don't know what will happen to you in the future."

It was only on July 20 that he was finally granted a protection visa, after having his first claim for asylum rejected.

He now lives in a modest house in Girrawheen and plans to continue his English studies, before studying law at university.

Tales from a leaking boat

Posted: 30 Aug 2011 12:26 PM PDT

By Soraya Lennie, Aljazeera

Aziz crammed into the cargo hold of a tiny fishing boat as it left the Indonesian port. He and the 17 other men aboard had their sights on Australia. Only four days in, it happened - the engine exploded, blowing acrid smoke into the cabin, choking Aziz and the other terrified passengers. The boat was adrift in the middle of the Indian Ocean, in the middle of an illegal voyage to seek asylum in Australia.

"We sat like this," Aziz says, hugging his knees to his chest. "We couldn't move, we were just [huddled together] shoulder to shoulder."

Finally, the Australian Navy spotted the small boat and three days later the men were at Australia's immigration processing centre on Christmas Island, just 360km south of Jakarta.

"It was very dangerous, very risky, how can you imagine it? It's so hard. You sacrifice your life, you could be a victim and every minute, it's possible you're going to drown in the sea," he adds.

And many do drown. Some die in the middle of the ocean, often days before immigration officials in either Indonesia or Australia notice. The latest incident occurred in December 2010, when a boat smuggling refugees crashed off Christmas Island, resulting in the death of some 48 people. But perhaps the worst tragedy took place almost a decade earlier, in October 2001, when more than 350 people drowned after their boat sunk at sea. Most were from Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran. Many were children, trapped in the sinking hull. Like the Christmas Island disaster, it sparked a bitter political spat as both sides blamed each other's policies for the tragedy.

The Australian government, headed by Prime Minister Julia Gillard, is under pressure to avoid these kinds of disasters. It's also trying to avoid a public backlash against any government perceived as soft on so-called "queue jumpers". In Australia, the issue makes and breaks politicians and wins and loses elections.

Playing politics

The former government of right-wing Prime Minister John Howard knew that best. August 26 will be the tenth anniversary of the "Tampa Affair", in which the Howard government sparked a diplomatic row with Norway when it refused permission for the Norwegian freighter MV Tampa to enter Australian waters. Its crew had rescued more than 400 asylum seekers from a sinking fishing boat heading to Australia. Just two months later, Howard's government famously - and wrongly - accused other asylum seekers of throwing their children overboard to secure Australian naval rescue and subsequent passage to Australia. Only one month later, Howard sailed to victory in the federal election on a platform of border security.

Between 1999 and 2001, Howard reintroduced Temporary Protection Visas and signed the "Pacific Solution", a policy in which asylum seekers were transferred to the tiny Pacific island nation of Nauru for processing. That government's treatment of refugees appalled the United Nations and human rights groups.

Despite the tough policy, the number of people arriving by boat increased sharply after the government introduced these measures. The numbers then plummeted and remained low until 2009. That year, more than 2,849 people arrived, compared to just 161 the previous year.

The opposition said that this spike was because Prime Minister Kevin Rudd scrapped many of Howard's policies in favour of a more humane approach. Some refugee advocates said that the spike in unauthorised arrivals reflected changes in global conflicts. But as Gillard took over, under pressure after an embarrassing and damaging leadership spill, she put a temporary freeze on processing the claims of Sri Lankan and Afghan refugees, pending a review. At the time, she said that the reality that confronted Howard's government confronted her own as well.

On Friday, Australia formally struck a deal with Papua New Guinea under which asylum seekers detected in Australian waters can be sent to PNG's Manus Island. It too was part of Howard's Pacific solution. The deal follows the Gillard government's arrangement with Malaysia. Dubbed the "Malaysian Solution", her government will send 800 asylum seekers to Malaysian transit centres while the immigration department processes the claims.

In return, Malaysia will send 4,000 genuine refugees to Australia. The Gillard government says that the arrangement "demonstrates the resolve of Australia and Malaysia to break the people smugglers' business model, stop them profiting from human misery, and stop people risking their lives at sea".

But Amnesty International is critical. "Although the Australian Government is very close to sending people there (to Malaysia), there are a lot of details to be decided, like who's going to look after unaccompanied minors? It's very worrying," says Dr Graham Thom, Amnesty International's Refugee Coordinator.

Thom says that the proposed scenario is far from ideal. The refugees will be housed in a temporary facility set up by the Australian government. It is significantly different from Malaysia's own detention centres, which Dr Thom describes as horrible and appalling. After a period of up to 45 days, they will be permitted to enter the community to live while their applications are processed.

But Amnesty International is concerned that Malaysian authorities will still arrest the refugees and send them to their own detention centres, where Amnesty says disease, assault and mistreatment are rife. Moreover, Thom says that the proposed people swap undermines Australia's standing at the UN and in the international community.

"We are a convention country, we put up our hand to protect people. So for us to be removing people to a non-convention country is a very serious breach of our international obligations. Secondly, it's even more worrying that country is Malaysia, which has a very poor record," says Thom.

But the deal is stuck in its tracks. At the eleventh hour, the High Court granted a two-week injunction against sending anyone to Malaysia on the grounds that it may not be legal. It began hearing the case on August 22. Lawyer David Manne, Executive Director of the Melbourne-based Refugee and Immigration Legal Centre, filed the injunction. He is representing the first 42 asylum seekers awaiting deportation to Malaysia under the people swap. Among them are six children. Mr Manne argues that Immigration Minister Chris Bowen is the legal guardian of the underage asylum seekers and is therefore legally bound to protect them. He is also arguing that the situation in Malaysia is not satisfactory.

Bowen told Fairfax Media as he announced the arrangement, "I expect protests, I expect legal challenges, I expect resistance." He has received all three. But Bowen contends that the government is well within its rights to send people to a third country and that the government has followed the law to the letter.

Will the 'Malaysian Solution' work?

The new proposal has disappointed refugees who have now settled in Australia. Many of them arrived undocumented by boat and, after having their applications for asylum approved, consider themselves lucky to be permanent residents, if not citizens. Hamood is one of them. He says he would not have travelled unauthorised to Australia if the Malaysia deal were in place as he fled Kuwait. No, he shakes his head resolutely, "I would have gone to a country that I knew would accept me."

His friend, Ghanem, fled instability in Iraq at the same time. He sold his car, begged and borrowed in order to pay a smuggler to get him and his younger brother to safety. After ten hellish, sleepless days at sea, aboard a leaking boat with a smoking engine, they made it. They spent nine months in detention, but are now trying to settle into a new life. He agrees with Hamood - if the Malaysia deal were on the table then, he would never have risked it.

"At the time, we were travelling as refugees. It was not a matter of choice. When we arrived in Malaysia we were told you can go to Australia. We didn't have the opportunity to check up on the country, or the politics, or the living standards. Of course now if you know the government is not accepting refugees, what are you doing to do? Of course people will stop coming, or at least the numbers will reduce." And that's the goal of Gillard's Malaysia deal.

Nasim Gulzari was a shopkeeper in Afghanistan when the Taliban took over his village. He fled in 1999. Through a people smuggler and a fake Pakistani passport, he made it onto a boat and eventually into Australia. It cost him eight thousand dollars for a chance at a new life.

Although he may have arrived illegally (at least according to the Australian governments interpretation of International Law), Gulzari says that the government has the responsibility to protect its borders. He, too, strongly believes the Malaysia deal will work: "The boats will stop certainly, in a couple of months they'll see the results." But like many others, he doesn't think that the Malaysia deal is the most humane approach. "People have to flee. In my opinion, these asylum seekers deserve to be treated properly."

Gulzari, his wife Wazir, and their five children have settled in the Goulburn Valley, in Northern Victoria, and proudly display an Australian flag among family photographs in their lounge room. What they have is what those crossing the sea want.

Others, however, doubt that the "Malaysian Solution" will have the intended effects. Aziz, from Afghanistan, believes that the chance at a better life is worth the risk of Malaysian detention. Will the Malaysian deal work? "Honestly? No, never. Why? Because people are living in very bad situations in their home country. When they reach Christmas Island, the government assesses their health, gives them food, they're safe at least. In Malaysia, no matter how bad it is there, they'd prefer it. Because eventually, they'll be processed. They'll never stop the boats."

He admits that he and Gulzari are queue jumpers, but asks those who have never been in his position, "If your house is on fire, it's not a choice to wait behind people queuing to get out the doors. You'd jump out the window to save your life. Wouldn't you?"

Iranian Exiles Flock East, to Multiethnic Malaysia

Posted: 30 Aug 2011 11:54 AM PDT

By John Krich, TIME

Above the outdoor cafés of this city's trendiest suburb, some 60 exiles are busily dubbing Brazilian soap operas, Japanese cartoons and American music videos into Farsi. They work for GEM-TV, a privately owned, Dubai-based bootleg satellite station that beams the modern world into Iran from a broadcast station in Malaysia. This Southeast Asian nation is becoming, in the words of GEM-TV host Abed Randamiz, "famous as a place to jump" from Iran's harshly religious regime. "It's the best of three countries that freely give us visas," Rangamiz says with a shrug. "The others are Turkey and Turkmenistan."

The Iranian influx is small but growing fast. At present, there are about 60,000 Iranians, studying, working or waiting for visas in this relatively easygoing, multiethnic Muslim-majority country. Iranians hold shares in an estimated 2,000 Malaysian businesses and occupy about 15,000 spots in Malaysian universities. Tourist arrivals from Iran jumped 14.3% to 116,000 last year. And, observe new arrivals, words of Persian origin, such as dewan for hall and anggur for grapes, have long been part of the Malay language. Most Iranians in Malaysia bask in the comforts of a life free from ideological pressures and from, in one exile's words, "bribing the police every time you want to have a party." Malaysia has become the base for frequent "Persian Disco Nights" and glitzy concerts by famed singers — one earlier this year included a rallying cry against the current regime — during the Iranian New Year in March.(Read about Malaysia's new journey beyond race.)

But life there isn't without hassles. Many, including Ali Manafi, a radio anchor who recently fled Iran at considerable risk, are exhausted by religious rules. "Spirituality should be personal," he says. "Here there are too many mosques and imams." Few Malaysian mosques welcome Shi'ite Muslims, leaving Iranian Shi'ites to worship at their embassy. Iranian activists have also faced rough treatment for political protests. Five Iranian student leaders were arrested for carrying candles in a memorial for protesters killed in Iran. In 2009, a protest of Iran's recent elections outside the U.N. led to tear gas. However, most activists say they try to stay away from Malaysia's current unrests — though they are quietly pleased that the recent July 9 demonstration, in which 1,400 Malaysians were arrested, took place on the 12th anniversary of one of Iran's largest protests.

Iranians say locals often assume the worst of their community. The highly publicized arrest of 15 Iranian drug smugglers last year — and several others since — hasn't helped. "Iranians are dirty-minded people — they come here to drink and take drugs and wear their shirts open like women," scoffed one Malay cab driver. Indeed, Ali Reza, an Iranian teacher, says he sometimes tells locals he hails from the invented country of "Kerkovia" to avoid discrimination. Of course, prejudice goes both ways. "We bring 2,500 years of culture, but here 100 years ago they were still in the trees with the monkeys," says GEM-TV's Randamiz.

Safineh Motlaq, a photojournalist who explains Malaysian culture to Iranians in a local magazine, Monograil, says mutual understanding will take time. "In Iran, we follow everything about the U.S. and Europe, but Asia is completely unknown. So people tend to isolate themselves here." She, for one, calls Malaysia "the closest I've found to a utopia." Moved by her seven years there, Motlaq published a photo book, A Given Path, about the rituals of Malaysia's three main ethnic communities — Chinese, Indian, Malay — with Marina Mahathir, daughter of Malaysia's former Prime Minister, writing the foreword.(Read about the teargassing incident in Kuala Lumpur.)

Siamak Rezvan, 40, has, like many Iranian professionals, started his own business, Yummy Restaurant, switching the menu from burgers to kebabs. He's working in Malaysia to put his 15-year-old son in an international school. Business is slow and his job applications were turned down because employers favor locals, but he's happy to be in Kuala Lumpur. "This is the place where we can have a normal life without fear," he says. However, Rangamiz, ever the exile, scoffs in his recording booth: "Malaysia my second home? Most of us, we don't even have a first home."

Read about Malaysian Muslims and Christians argue over the word Allah.

Kredit: www.malaysia-today.net

Rabu, 31 Ogos 2011

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

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