Australia Agrees to Consider Rohingyas’ Visa ApplicationsBy

Australia Agrees to Consider Rohingyas’ Visa ApplicationsBy

Violet Cho :Irrawady News

July 18, 2007

The Australia government has agreed for the first time to consider visa applications from Burmese Rohingya asylum seekers detained o­n Nauru Island, in the western Pacific Ocean. Seven Rohingya men from Burma’s Arakan State are among refugees confined by the Canberra government in the remote island nation. They fled to Australia by boat in August 2006 after living in Malaysia for several years. Although they make up about o­ne third of the population of Arakan State, Burma’s Muslim Rohingya communities are not among the 135 “national races” recognized by the Burmese government. The Citizenship Law of 1982 leaves them stateless, effectively making them illegal immigrants in their own country. Arakan State’s other major ethnic group, the Buddhist Rakhine, o­n the other hand, are close to the ruling Burmans in both religion and language, and they enjoy more rights than the Rohingya. The plight of the Rohingya has led to an increasing exodus of refugees, who attempt to reach Malaysia in open boats. Hundreds have left the shores of Arakan State in recent months, many of them ending up o­n the beaches of Thailand, where they are arrested and held for deportation. Refugees arriving in Australia and detained by Australian authorities are generally held in camps o­n such islands as Nauru. Amnesty International Australia charges that the remote locations severely restrict and in some cases prohibit asylum seekers from access to basic needs and rights, including legal representation, education, translators, refugee advocates, adequate health care, the media, community groups, the Australian public and organizations. Although the Australian government has now agreed to process visa applications by the seven Rohingya men held o­n Nauru, they could be exchanged for refugees housed at the US detention center at Guantanamo Bay, according to lawyer David Manne, who represents the group. Such an exchange would take place under the terms of a US-Australia agreement announced in April. Some 90 Sri Lankan refugees and the Rohingyas would be sent to the US and, in return, Australia would accept Cuban and Haitian refugees held at Guantanamo. “It's possible that the Burmese men could come within the realms of this new agreement,” said Melbourne-based Manne, in an interview with The Irrawaddy before leaving for Nauru to represent the Rohingyas in interview sessions with government officials and interpreters. Although the US-Australia agreement has been criticized by Human Rights Watch, Manne welcomed the decision now by the Australian government to process the visa applications filed by the Rohingyas. “In essence, our clients have got what they wanted and what they're entitled to under Australian law,” he said. “The government has finally conceded that our clients have the right to have their visa applications assessed according to long-established Australian visa rules.”