By Rayane Abou Jaoude
BEIRUT: Detained on Christmas Island, a territory in Australia, for a month after having made a tough journey from Indonesia by boat, 40 Lebanese men will soon be shipped off to the poverty-stricken island of Papua New Guinea as part of a new regional refugee settlement agreement. Thousands of refugees and asylum-seekers hailing from poor and war-torn countries were smuggled into Christmas Island aboard sea vessels this year. Hundreds have perished on the dangerous journey, whether from drowning, dehydration or starvation.
On July 19, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd decided to ban them from settling in Australia. In line with the decision, those who do manage to land are now being deported to Manus Island in Papau New Guinea.
The Australian government has said its decision was mainly aimed at discouraging asylum-seekers from making the dangerous voyage and paying smugglers thousands of dollars to do so.
The 40 Lebanese hail from the northern Tripoli neighborhood of Bab al-Tabbaneh and the town of Akkar, and left for Indonesia two months ago, according to their families. The men, one as young as 16, braved dangerous waters in small, rickety vessels before reaching the shores of Christmas Island. They then tore up their Lebanese passports, refusing to ever return.
But the much-dreaded announcement of their imminent deportation reached their families Monday, at which point they learned their relatives would be transported to Papau New Guinea and would not be able to resettle in Australia.
In protest, the families went to the Australian Embassy in Beirut Tuesday, with the younger brothers of the detained carrying placards that read: “We ask for your mercy and pity,” and “They escaped the difficult circumstances and appeal to your country.”
The men had been working in Lebanon under tough conditions in order to support their poor families, and had left the country with the hope of finding better jobs and sending money back home to their families.
One such case is that of 27-year-old Faisal Mohammad Qassem, who hails from the poor and battered Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhood. He is the eldest of 12 children, and, with an ill father unable to work, was forced to take on the responsibility of supporting them.
“He could never make enough money,” said his mother, Aisha Mahmoud. “So he went to Indonesia and then to Australia by boat, and we just found out he’s being deported to some island.”
The families rarely get the chance to speak with their relatives, who don’t own mobile phones, and instead depend on prepaid cards.
“We only need to make sure they’re alive so our conversations are very short,” Mahmoud said.
She stressed that all of the men, who left for Indonesia in a group, had landed in Australia before July 19.
The Australian Embassy in Lebanon, however, said the men arrived in Australia on July 25, well after the government had passed the law preventing asylum-seekers in boats from settling there.
“We are not here to fight with anybody,” said Saeed Abdallah, whose son Mohammad Assad is currently detained on Christmas Island. “We are only here to urge the Australian Embassy to heed our calls.”
His wife, 22-year-old Akida Radih, held their small child as she explained none of her family members knew the details behind the men’s journey or who they had paid to take them. They knew only the boat number that had carried their loved ones – 809.
Hanaa Sayyed, mother of detained 21-year-old Yehya Rifai, said the men left Lebanon on June 10 and stayed in Indonesia for a month before reaching Christmas Island.
“If my son is going to be deported to Papua New Guinea, then I’d rather he come back here,” she said. “I don’t want him on that island.
“It’s a wretched place.”
Sayyed said her son left to escape humiliation and extreme poverty, but that his return would be better than being left in Papua New Guinea, where poverty and natural disasters were real concerns.
She doesn’t know when exactly her son will be deported, but she knows it will happen soon.
“They were detained by the Australia authorities as soon as they landed on Australian shores,” 24-year-old Hussein Shehade said, whose brother Ali, 27, is also among those detained.
The Lebanese Foreign Ministry has not involved itself in the matter, a representative told The Daily Star, saying the fact that the Lebanese tore up their passports has complicated matters.
The deputy head of mission at the Australian Embassy in Beirut, Lou-Ellen Martin, said Australian Ambassador to Lebanon Lex Bartlem met with a representative of the families and assured him the men detained on Christmas Island were being treated well.
The Christmas Island Immigration Detention Center refused to provide The Daily Star with any information on the detained Lebanese, their current conditions or their fate.
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21/08/2013
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