GOVERNMENT CONFIRMS INCREASE IN NUMBER OF VIETNAMESE SEEKING ASYLUM IN AUSTRALIA

The boat which arrived off Broome yesterday.
By Paul Bell

By Jane Norman and staff, ABC News | Updated July 17, 2013, 4:51 pm

Immigration Department figures show a sharp rise in the number of Vietnamese people seeking asylum in Australia.

Yesterday a boat carrying 84 people – mainly Vietnamese – was intercepted in waters 50 kilometres away from the Kimberley town of Broome. 

The group was brought ashore at the local port and has been transferred to the Curtin Detention Centre.

Department figures show 759 Vietnamese people have arrived by boat so far this year – up from fewer than 50 last year.

The Refugee Action Coalition’s Ian Rintoul says it is a result of a Vietnamese government crackdown on dissidents and religious minorities.

“I guess I’m a little surprised, but it has been pretty obvious over the past couple of months that there have been increases in the number of people from Vietnam,” he said.

“[That is] the result of the crackdown, on the underground Catholic Church in particular, in Vietnam.”

Tri Vo, the president of the Vietnamese Community in Sydney, says he has no doubts about why they are fleeing.

“It’s most probably due to the increase in the oppression and suppression of the people in Vietnam and the recent crackdown of the human rights activists, bloggers, media people and young people who are not afraid of speaking up, who demand democracy,” he told The World Today.

Tri Vo says the oppression is nothing new for Vietnam, but through the use of modern technology the Vietnamese are more aware of it now than ever before.

“There’s no separation of power and there is no free media, therefore when it is always under the control of the Vietnamese Communist party,” he said.

“There is always corruption. No-one is overseeing them. No-one is presenting another view. No-one is opposing what they do so there is corruption all across the country.

“And who ever is brave enough to speak out about the reality, then they themselves will be in prison. And that is the reality of Vietnam today.”

According to Human Rights Watch, at least 33 activists were imprisoned in 2012.

Two of them were musicians who had written songs critical of the regime.

Tri Vo is a refugee himself – he and his family fled Vietnam by boat in 1982.

He predicts there will be many more boat arrivals until the human rights situation in Vietnam improves.

Indonesian minister clarifies stance on turned-back boats

Indonesia’s foreign affairs minister Marty Natalegawa says his government will not accept asylum seeker boats being towed back from Australia.

In comments yesterday, Dr Natalegawa said he would be willing to discuss the Opposition’s policy to turn boats around if the Coalition won the election, sentiments which had encouraged the Opposition.

But interviewed on Channel Ten last night, Dr Natalegawa clearly said he did not support the plan to tow back boats.

“Such a policy would constitute a unilateral type of measure that we do not support, and that’s why in my earlier remarks today what I said basically is that let’s hear what the policy is all about,” he said.

“We are not ecstatic about it for sure, but in terms of in the spirit of wanting to hear the various policy options countries are proposing, parties are proposing, it’s good to have this dialogue.”

*Source ABC News

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