NSW: Protesters march to mark Tampa anniversary

AAP General News (Australia)
08-25-2005
NSW: Protesters march to mark Tampa anniversary

SYDNEY, Aug 25 AAP - Up to 1,000 people are expected to march through central Sydney
tomorrow in a rally to mark the anniversary of the so-called Tampa affair.

The protesters will assemble at Sydney's Town Hall and continue down George Street
to pressure the federal government to alter its policy on mandatory detention.

Refugee Action Coalition of NSW spokesman Ian Rintoul said the Tampa Day rally would
highlight the legacy left by the government's detention of more than 430 asylum seekers
who were rescued by the Norwegian freighter Tampa on August 26, 2001.

"Tomorrow marks the day the Tampa went to the rescue of boat people who were on their
way to Australia to seek protection," Mr Rintoul said today.

The Tampa went to the aid of the asylum seekers on a sinking 20m wooden Indonesian fishing boat.

The rescue sparked a international row when Captain Arne Rinnan would not return them
to Indonesia, Indonesia refused to have them, and Australia did not let them land on Christmas
Island.

It ended up anchored for a week off Christmas Island, part of Australia's migration
zone but in international waters, off Australia's north-west coast.

The incident spawned the government's Pacific Solution policy. The asylum seekers were
picked up by the navy and taken to impromptu detention centres on Manus Island in Papua
New Guinea and Nauru.

New Zealand took many of the refugees.

"Thirty-two people are still held on Nauru four years after the Tampa began the Pacific
solution," Mr Rintoul said.

The refugee action group would continue to push for an end to mandatory detention and
a review of the government's deportation arrangements, he said.

"We want a review of the deportation arrangements in place, particularly in light of
what's happened to Vivian (Alvarez) and others who have been deported back to danger,"

he said.

A delegation from the Refugee Action Coalition of NSW assembled today at Prime Minister
John Howard's Sydney office to present a letter detailing the group's concerns about the
government's refugee policy.

The letter includes concerns about the treatment of West African refugee and former
detainee Cheikh Kone.

Mr Kone, who was detained at a detention centre in Port Hedland in Western Australia
in 2000, has received a bill from the Department of Immigration to pay $89,000 relating
to the costs of his three-year detention.

AAP na/nf/drp/jlw

KEYWORD: TAMPA

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