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Asylum seekers: Andrew takes Australia to international criminal court
Oct 22, 201405:28 PM
Australian politician Andrew Wilkie has written to the International Criminal Court seeking to prosecute the Abbott government for crimes against humanity, specifically on asylum seekers of Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.
The Tasmanian Independent MP and human rights advocate and lawyer Greg Barns have requested Tony Abbott and his 19 Cabinet colleagues be the subject of inquiries by the ICC prosecutor.
In his letter, Mr Wilkie nominates evidence of crimes against humanity, including “imprisonment and other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law”.
There is also the “deportation and other forcible transfer of population” and “other intential acts causing great suffering, or serious injury to body and mental and physical health,” he writes.
“Members of the Australian government are pursuing policies that are designed to deter persons arriving by boats from seeking protection in Australia.”
They include sending people to Nauru and Manus Island, he says.
“The effect of the policy is that men, women and children are being forcibly relocated and then subjected to arbitrary imprisonment through mandatory and sometimes indefinite detention.
“The conditions they are forced to endure in detention are causing great suffering as well as serious bodily and mental injury.”
Mr Wilkie accuses the government of not only breaching the article of Crimes Against Humanity, but also “the Refugee Convention, Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights”.
Large numbers of asylum seekers are also being put at risk by being “forcibly” returned to countries from which they have fled, including Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, he said. -news.com.au
