A lawyer representing 12 Sri Lankan asylum seekers who attempted to reach Australia by boat, but were subsequently flown back, has refuted the Australian Government‘s claim that turning back the boats will break the business model of people smugglers.
The asylum seekers arrived at the Cocos-Keeling Islands earlier in the month before they were sent back to Sri Lanka’s capital, to face legal proceedings for leaving Sri Lanka by boat.
Lakshan Dias, a human rights and refugee lawyer, says that the Australian Government has misunderstood how the boat journeys from Sri Lanka worked, with asylum seekers going in collectively to purchase boats instead of hiring people smugglers:
“Australia’s Government is talking rubbish. … Sri Lanka, there are not organised people smugglers. It is totally different from what is happening in Indonesia and Malaysia. These kind of people get a boat from a boat owner and they collectively get money for food and fuel and everything and go on a boat journey to Australia. That cannot be looked at as a people smuggling business.”
Dias also claims that Australia failed its obligation to the UN Refugee Convention, giving the asylum seekers no chance to explain their legitimate reasons for leaving Sri Lanka or state why they should not be returned.
Dias says he will try every legal remedy possible to allow the 12 men, women and children to seek asylum in Australia.
Source: ABC News.
Photo: Getty Images / Oscar Siagian.
