Indonesia refuses entry to 44 boat' Tamils

Chennai: Forty four Sri Lankan Tamils, including several women and children—including a heavily pregnant woman and a sick child, face uncertain risks at sea as the Indonesian authorities appear determined to tow out to the deep sea their boat, stranded at their shore when its engine failed on way to Australia’s Christmas Island on a ‘refugee mission’.  

Reports reaching here said the rickety boat, flying under an Indian flag, could have set off from somewhere in south Tamil Nadu a month ago and has been in sea since then on its perilous trip carrying its human cargo of fortune seekers in distant Australia, which has been making it amply clear for the past several months that its shores are sealed for such migrant boatpeople. A massive painting is put up by the Australian immigration department on the Jaffna train platform wall informing the public there about this ban on refugee landings in that country.

High drama has been going on since the Tamil boat beached at Lhoknga shore south of Banda Aceh on Saturday and the screaming and yelling passengers cried for permission to land so that a very sick baby could get medical assistance. Some also pleaded for food and said they had been drifting for several days after the boat’s engine failed.

With the locals rushing in, the police cordoned off the area and fired a warning shot in the air after about five women jumped out on to the beach in an effort to make a forced landing. In the process, they sustained injuries in the legs. The women and also some others on the boat, including a few men were seen gesturing to the armed Indonesian guards to allow them to land or shoot them dead.

“Shoot us if you want, please shoot us”, a woman was heard screaming in Tamil, with her two fingers aimed at her forehead in a video put out by popular Australia media company, Fairfox House. The video has gone globally viral and has been drawing sharp comments from rights activists and organisations pleading with Indonesia to permit the sea-tired Tamils to land for food, shelter and medical help rather than push them out onto their perilous journey to nowhere.

Interestingly, the Indonesian national government had on Wednesday asked the local authorities to allow the boatpeople to land and seek asylum by the latter ignored the directive and are getting ready to tow the boat back into the open sea after getting the engine repaired and the sea gets less rough. Heavy weather is predicted out there at sea.

Local UNHCR and other rights groups have not been allowed to the distressed Tamils. Noting that the issue has been “most distressing”, S. C. Chandrahasan, founder of Organisation for Eelam Refugees Rehabilitation in Chennai, said, “There is absolutely no need for these people to undertake such perilous sea trips because conditions have vastly improved back home in Sri Lanka and they can return home to start life afresh”.

Noted Tamil leader Charles Antonidas in London told DC in a phone interview: “When they return to Sri Lanka, which they can do without fear now, opportunities await them; so, why are they taking these dangerous boat trips? Sri Lankan Government should impress upon these people (refugees living in Tamil Nadu) to come back home and provide them all facilities”.

Over 700 Tamils have perished on such refugee voyages from India and Sri Lanka in the last few years even though the bloody war ended in May 2009 in north Lanka.