Australia signs agreement with Iran to deport asylum seekers. Will Europe follo
Emma Corcoran | 27.05.2003 01:21
The Australian Government has just signed a historic deal with Iran. For the first time, Iran has agreed to accept forcibly deported Iranian asylum seekers. If this deal goes ahead, European countries will also begin to agitate for a similar deal, so that they can forcibly return tens of thousands of Iranian asylum seekers.
Australia signs agreement with Iran to deport asylum seekers. Will Europe follow?
Mohammad* spends his days in his bedroom. He used to watch TV, or write to friends, but now he says, “I just sitting. Sitting and thinking.” He’s an Iranian asylum seeker living in an Australian detention centre. Mohammad wasn’t granted refugee status here, but is too frightened to return to his homeland because he’s a Christian – a crime punishable by death in Iran.
Mohammad is just one of hundreds of asylum seekers who’ve been denied asylum but are too frightened to go home. These people live in detention centres - an unreal existence where they’re physically in Australia, (speaking English and eating barbequed sausages), but legally in no-mans-land.
The Australian Government is sick and tired of them. So they’ve developed a plan to get rid of the largest group – the 128 Iranian asylum seekers who have no appeals pending in the courts.
On the 12th of March, Phillip Ruddock, the Minister for Immigration, announced that the Australian Government had just signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Iranian Government. In this deal, the Iranians said they’d accept asylum seekers forcibly deported back to Iran, in exchange for a cultural program allowing affluent young Iranians to come and experience the Australian lifestyle.
The deal was described by Ruddock as ‘historic,’ because until now the Iranian Government has refused to accept forcibly deported asylum seekers. Iran has an unemployment rate of 30%, so they’re reluctant to accept back the tens of thousands asylum seekers that Europe is desperate to deport.
The significance of this agreement with Australia is that it will leave the Iranian Government open to pressure from European countries seeking its replication. The 128 Iranians in Australia would be a mere trickle, compared to the flood of asylum seekers that could follow. Australia’s offer of an exchange program for a few hundred Iranian teenagers would be no recompense for this type of financial and political burden.
So why did the Iranians sign the agreement? It’s difficult to know, because no one has seen it. “They aren’t releasing the details of it to anyone, including Parliament,” says Mary Black*, a refugee advocate and friend of Mohammad’s. (Ms. Black asked that she be given a false name to prevent Mohammad’s identification, and any consequent adverse attention from detention centre management.)
A representative of the Iranian Embassy, Mr. Al-Habib, who visited the remote Baxter detention centre, on the 15th of May, was also unwilling to produce a copy of the agreement. Asylum seekers requesting to see it reported being told, ‘I am here in the flesh. This is better proof than any piece of paper. You should trust me.’
Worryingly, during the discussion, Mr. Al-Habib mentioned personal details about the detainees that they hadn’t told him. “He told them the Department of Immigration had passed on details about them to the Iranian Government,” said Mary Black. “Many of these Iranians are political dissidents. If any information was released they’d face severe consequences once deported.”
“I think they give our name and our information to the Iranian Embassy,” said Mohammed, speaking on the phone from the Baxter detention centre. “Everyone is worried.”
It’s not in the Australian Government’s best interests to pass on information to the Iranian regime, because it has served only to make the asylum seekers more resistant to deportation. So why would they do it? The only reason refugee advocates can offer is that it forms part of the deal signed with the Iranians. “This,” postulates Mary Black, “may be the reason that no-one has seen the secret agreement.”
The other possibility is that the Iranians may have signed the agreement because they are desperate to increase trade with Western countries, in particular, Western countries closely allied to the United States.
This week, a delegation of eight Iranian businessmen and trade experts is touring Australia. They’ve come to visit the CSIRO, BHP, and the Australian Wheat Board. This visit follows a trip made to Iran last September by the Minister for Trade, Mark Vaile, and a delegation of representatives from 34 Australian companies. “The Iranian Government is very anxious to develop and expand their mining sector,” said Mr. Vaile. “The attractiveness of Australia is that we've been at the leading edge of developing new technology in mining.”
Perhaps the Iranian’s desire to develop a strong mining industry is the reason they bowed to Australia pressure and agreed to accept forcibly deported asylum seekers. Iran may be particularly keen to buddy up to Australia because it is a close ally of the United States. (The US has cut off all diplomatic ties with Iran, and this week’s CNN poll is “Should the U.S. take steps to destabilize Tehran's Islamic regime?”)
The other possibility is that the agreement between Australia and Iran is a secret because it doesn’t exist. The threat of forced deportation may be a hoax, a bluff created solely to scare the Iranians into accepting a deportation package of a few thousand dollars and leaving peacefully. They were given 28 days to accept the money, or face forced deportation. Few have capitulated.
“We didn’t come here for money,” Mohammad tells me. “There is jobs and money in Iran. But I cannot live there.”
His voice becomes insistent.
“I will sell my life for $2000? No. I do not want money.”
The asylum seekers are now as frightened of the Australian Government as they are of the fundamentalist regime they escaped from.
“We will be delivered to our enemy like sheep to wolf,” they wrote, in a letter to the Australian public. Mohammad now takes three sleeping tablets a night. “Our life is stress,” he tells me. “We can’t sleep, we can’t eat. I can’t see the sky.”
Why are these asylum seekers fighting so desperately for a life in an Australian detention centre?
“Iran is Muslim, but I changed to Christian. So I had to leave,” says Mohammad. “If you change religion they kill you. The best life is in Iran, but unfortunately our Government is really, really bad.”
It seems it doesn’t take much effort to engage the wrath of Iran’s religious leaders. Last month, Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported that an Iranian actress was sentenced to 74 lashes for kissing a young actor on the check at a public festival.
If a kiss on the cheek is enough to earn a whipping, what will be the fate of these 128 Iranian asylum seekers, many of whom claim to be outspoken critics of the Iranian regime?
Barbara Rogalla is a former nurse at Woomera. “When I was there, an Iranian volunteered to go back to Iran,” she says. “I asked him ‘Why would you go back, when you know you’re going to jail?’ And he told me, ‘I’m in jail here. At least there my family can visit me.”
Before working in Woomera Barbara had never been particularly interested in the plight of refugees, but she’s now a human rights activist. “I think there’s a high probability these Iranians will either go to jail or be tortured or killed. When Ruddock says ‘these people aren’t refugees,’ this really means they haven’t passed the stringent requirements Australia has. The process is designed to keep people out.”
The process is working. In detention centres around Australia, the Iranians sit. And wait. Their twenty-eight days runs out in two weeks. All they know is that their lives are being put at risk by secret dealings between the country they fled to, and the country they fled from.
If Iran has signed the agreement to enhance their trade relations with Australia, then we have a Government not only eager to enter into trading agreements with a country in the axis of evil, but happy to use this countries desire for trade to bargain the lives of asylum seekers.
If it’s true that the Australian Government fed information to the Iranian regime as part of the deal, then our leaders could easily be described as murderous. Even if the agreement proves to be only an elaborate hoax, this Government will be still exposed as manipulative liars.
For Mohammad, all that is important is that he thinks he’ll be sent home to die. “We don’t know what will happen in next two days,” he says. His friend, Mary Black, rings him every morning. “I’d love to give Mohammad some hope,” she says. “But what can I say without lying?”
*Not their real names.
Emma Corcoran - Rural Australians for Refugees
emmacorcoran@bigpond.com
Mohammad* spends his days in his bedroom. He used to watch TV, or write to friends, but now he says, “I just sitting. Sitting and thinking.” He’s an Iranian asylum seeker living in an Australian detention centre. Mohammad wasn’t granted refugee status here, but is too frightened to return to his homeland because he’s a Christian – a crime punishable by death in Iran.
Mohammad is just one of hundreds of asylum seekers who’ve been denied asylum but are too frightened to go home. These people live in detention centres - an unreal existence where they’re physically in Australia, (speaking English and eating barbequed sausages), but legally in no-mans-land.
The Australian Government is sick and tired of them. So they’ve developed a plan to get rid of the largest group – the 128 Iranian asylum seekers who have no appeals pending in the courts.
On the 12th of March, Phillip Ruddock, the Minister for Immigration, announced that the Australian Government had just signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Iranian Government. In this deal, the Iranians said they’d accept asylum seekers forcibly deported back to Iran, in exchange for a cultural program allowing affluent young Iranians to come and experience the Australian lifestyle.
The deal was described by Ruddock as ‘historic,’ because until now the Iranian Government has refused to accept forcibly deported asylum seekers. Iran has an unemployment rate of 30%, so they’re reluctant to accept back the tens of thousands asylum seekers that Europe is desperate to deport.
The significance of this agreement with Australia is that it will leave the Iranian Government open to pressure from European countries seeking its replication. The 128 Iranians in Australia would be a mere trickle, compared to the flood of asylum seekers that could follow. Australia’s offer of an exchange program for a few hundred Iranian teenagers would be no recompense for this type of financial and political burden.
So why did the Iranians sign the agreement? It’s difficult to know, because no one has seen it. “They aren’t releasing the details of it to anyone, including Parliament,” says Mary Black*, a refugee advocate and friend of Mohammad’s. (Ms. Black asked that she be given a false name to prevent Mohammad’s identification, and any consequent adverse attention from detention centre management.)
A representative of the Iranian Embassy, Mr. Al-Habib, who visited the remote Baxter detention centre, on the 15th of May, was also unwilling to produce a copy of the agreement. Asylum seekers requesting to see it reported being told, ‘I am here in the flesh. This is better proof than any piece of paper. You should trust me.’
Worryingly, during the discussion, Mr. Al-Habib mentioned personal details about the detainees that they hadn’t told him. “He told them the Department of Immigration had passed on details about them to the Iranian Government,” said Mary Black. “Many of these Iranians are political dissidents. If any information was released they’d face severe consequences once deported.”
“I think they give our name and our information to the Iranian Embassy,” said Mohammed, speaking on the phone from the Baxter detention centre. “Everyone is worried.”
It’s not in the Australian Government’s best interests to pass on information to the Iranian regime, because it has served only to make the asylum seekers more resistant to deportation. So why would they do it? The only reason refugee advocates can offer is that it forms part of the deal signed with the Iranians. “This,” postulates Mary Black, “may be the reason that no-one has seen the secret agreement.”
The other possibility is that the Iranians may have signed the agreement because they are desperate to increase trade with Western countries, in particular, Western countries closely allied to the United States.
This week, a delegation of eight Iranian businessmen and trade experts is touring Australia. They’ve come to visit the CSIRO, BHP, and the Australian Wheat Board. This visit follows a trip made to Iran last September by the Minister for Trade, Mark Vaile, and a delegation of representatives from 34 Australian companies. “The Iranian Government is very anxious to develop and expand their mining sector,” said Mr. Vaile. “The attractiveness of Australia is that we've been at the leading edge of developing new technology in mining.”
Perhaps the Iranian’s desire to develop a strong mining industry is the reason they bowed to Australia pressure and agreed to accept forcibly deported asylum seekers. Iran may be particularly keen to buddy up to Australia because it is a close ally of the United States. (The US has cut off all diplomatic ties with Iran, and this week’s CNN poll is “Should the U.S. take steps to destabilize Tehran's Islamic regime?”)
The other possibility is that the agreement between Australia and Iran is a secret because it doesn’t exist. The threat of forced deportation may be a hoax, a bluff created solely to scare the Iranians into accepting a deportation package of a few thousand dollars and leaving peacefully. They were given 28 days to accept the money, or face forced deportation. Few have capitulated.
“We didn’t come here for money,” Mohammad tells me. “There is jobs and money in Iran. But I cannot live there.”
His voice becomes insistent.
“I will sell my life for $2000? No. I do not want money.”
The asylum seekers are now as frightened of the Australian Government as they are of the fundamentalist regime they escaped from.
“We will be delivered to our enemy like sheep to wolf,” they wrote, in a letter to the Australian public. Mohammad now takes three sleeping tablets a night. “Our life is stress,” he tells me. “We can’t sleep, we can’t eat. I can’t see the sky.”
Why are these asylum seekers fighting so desperately for a life in an Australian detention centre?
“Iran is Muslim, but I changed to Christian. So I had to leave,” says Mohammad. “If you change religion they kill you. The best life is in Iran, but unfortunately our Government is really, really bad.”
It seems it doesn’t take much effort to engage the wrath of Iran’s religious leaders. Last month, Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported that an Iranian actress was sentenced to 74 lashes for kissing a young actor on the check at a public festival.
If a kiss on the cheek is enough to earn a whipping, what will be the fate of these 128 Iranian asylum seekers, many of whom claim to be outspoken critics of the Iranian regime?
Barbara Rogalla is a former nurse at Woomera. “When I was there, an Iranian volunteered to go back to Iran,” she says. “I asked him ‘Why would you go back, when you know you’re going to jail?’ And he told me, ‘I’m in jail here. At least there my family can visit me.”
Before working in Woomera Barbara had never been particularly interested in the plight of refugees, but she’s now a human rights activist. “I think there’s a high probability these Iranians will either go to jail or be tortured or killed. When Ruddock says ‘these people aren’t refugees,’ this really means they haven’t passed the stringent requirements Australia has. The process is designed to keep people out.”
The process is working. In detention centres around Australia, the Iranians sit. And wait. Their twenty-eight days runs out in two weeks. All they know is that their lives are being put at risk by secret dealings between the country they fled to, and the country they fled from.
If Iran has signed the agreement to enhance their trade relations with Australia, then we have a Government not only eager to enter into trading agreements with a country in the axis of evil, but happy to use this countries desire for trade to bargain the lives of asylum seekers.
If it’s true that the Australian Government fed information to the Iranian regime as part of the deal, then our leaders could easily be described as murderous. Even if the agreement proves to be only an elaborate hoax, this Government will be still exposed as manipulative liars.
For Mohammad, all that is important is that he thinks he’ll be sent home to die. “We don’t know what will happen in next two days,” he says. His friend, Mary Black, rings him every morning. “I’d love to give Mohammad some hope,” she says. “But what can I say without lying?”
*Not their real names.
Emma Corcoran - Rural Australians for Refugees
emmacorcoran@bigpond.com
Emma Corcoran
e-mail:
emmacorcoran@bigpond.com