Australian envoy warns against dream sellers

Addressing a press conference here in the wake of the arrest of nine Sri Lankan Tamils from Munambam who tried to illegally migrate to Australia with the help of four agents by sea route last Thursday, Sean Kelly said Australia has tough migration rules and policy now and that people who come through the legal channel can only hope to be safe and secure there.

Pointing to the agents, Kelly said that “these criminal syndicates are fraudulently selling a false dream of a future in Australia, when they know that this is a cruel lie,”

“There is no way that people who attempt to travel to Australia by boat will be allowed to settle in Australia. Anyone who does survive the journey will be intercepted and transferred to regional processing centres in Nauru and Manus Island in Papua New Guinea. There will be no resettlement from these islands,” Kelly added.

Referring to the recent Australian Government announcement that it will resettle refugees fleeing the conflict zone in Syria and Iraq, the Consul- General said that this will have no impact on Australia’s policy to stop people attempting to travel illegally by boat to Australia.

“Australia will only resettle those refugees who are registered by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and who are currently in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. There are nearly 12,000 of them. These resettlement places will not be provided to anyone arriving in Australia illegally by boat,” he added.

He said Australia does not have any record of people from Kerala landing in the two detention centres at Nauru and Manus and added that 1200 persons are understood to have died while attempting to illegally land in Australia by boat.