Tamil asylum seekers appeal for refuge in Australia

Natasha Chaku

Melbourne, Oct 15 (PTI) Over 250 Tamil asylum seekers
fleeing Sri Lanka have appealed to Australia to grant them
refuge after the Indonesian navy intercepted their boat on its
way to this country.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd had earlier this
week asked Indonesia to intercept the boat carrying the asylum
seekers, and the vessel is struck in an Indonesian island.

"We are Sri Lankan refugees, please take us to your
country, we can't live in Sri Lanka. Please help us and save
our lives. We are your children. Please think of us," an AAP
report quoted a nine-year-old girl Brindah, who is on the
boat, as appealing to the Australian government.

The report said Brindah is one of the Tamils crammed on
to the bow of a rickety wooden cargo boat moored alongside an
Indonesian navy ship in Merak, western Java.

A small group of journalists were allowed to meet the
asylum seekers after Indonesian navy apprehended their boat
enroute to Australia.

"They were sitting shoulder to shoulder, as if posing
for a giant class photo," the report said.

The asylum seekers have been trying to reach Australia
for months and also spent a month in Malaysian jungle before
joining the boat, which they have now been aboard for two
weeks, it said.

Their spokesman, Alex, said they can endure much more,
adding they will stay on board until they are offered asylum
in a Western country such as Australia.

"If you come see the situation in Sri Lanka, where most
Tamils live... you can see it's a lot worse than living on
this ship," Alex said.

"So most of these people are used to a life like this.
We're comfortable in a life like this. So I can guarantee you,
we can go on for months," he was quoted as saying.

Alex said they were fleeing genocide in Sri Lanka and
wanted to reach a place that can offer them a future.

"To return to Sri Lanka would mean certain death...to
stay in Indonesia would mean years in limbo while they wait
for a third country to accept them as refugees," he said.

"We are staying on this boat until the international
community comes together and makes a decision on finding a way
to get us out of this country," he said.

The Tamils set sail for Australia believing it would
accept them and grant them refuge, Alex said, adding it was,
therefore, hard to accept that Rudd had asked Indonesia to
stop the boat before it could reach Australian waters.

"If you had no home to go to, if you had no county to
live in ... what would you do?" Alex said.

"We're not animals, we're not dogs, we're not stray
dogs. We're just people without a country to live in."

The Tamils earlier threatened to blow themselves up if
forced ashore but Alex said the threat was made when they
feared they would be sent back to Sri Lanka. They have now
surrendered their gas canisters and diesel fuel to the navy.

"We did not come this far to die. We came this far to
live, to find a life," he said. PTI NC
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