Sri Lankans who try to come to Australia without meeting requirements of the refugee convention will be sent straight back home, Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare says.
Sri Lanka’s high commissioner to Australia said that his country would welcome asylum seeker boats turned around by Australian authorities.
Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe’s comments came after the arrival in the West Australian port of Geraldton on Tuesday of a fishing boat carrying 66 suspected asylum seekers, thought to be from Sri Lanka, who are currently being questioned in Australia.
The message to such people was very clear, Clare said.
“If you’re coming from Sri Lanka and you’re not a refugee you’ll get flown back home,” he told the Seven Network.
Clare said the government had already flown about 1000 people back to Sri Lanka in the last few months and was continuing to work with Sri Lankan authorities.
This had reduced the number of unauthorised arrivals, he said.
“The prospect of drowning hasn’t put people off but the risk of being flown home in a couple of days has stopped people,” Clare said.
Samarasinghe says he expects the 66 people from the latest arrival to be sent back to Sri Lanka and denies there are widespread cases of human rights abuse there.
Meanwhile, Clare says initial inquiries about why the boat took the route it did suggested it wanted to get to New Zealand, and not the Australian mainland.
Immigration Minister Brendan O’Connor denied asylum seekers sent back to Sri Lanka were being arrested upon arrival.
When asked by ABC radio whether Sri Lankans returned to their homeland by the Australian government were arrested on arrival, O’Connor said: “That’s not true”.
“We will always fulfil our obligations under the law,” he said.
“People who are making wild claims about matters should provide evidence.”
Australia was a “very generous nation” that maintained 20,000 places under its humanitarian program for genuine asylum seekers.
The federal government would not use those places for people who did not need protection because that would mean those who did need assistance missed out, he said. (AAP)
