Sri Lanka’s civil war causing outflow of people- Rudd
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, speaking to reporters in Australia today has said that the civil war in Sri Lanka is causing an outflow of people from Sri Lanka right across the world. He also insisted that the Australian government makes no apology for a hard line approach to people smuggling and border security.
“In processing any individual, if we have found- if we find that a person is not a legitimate asylum seeker, we send them home. We have already done that in the case of some people that have been sent back to Sri Lanka already. We will continue to do that in the future,” the Australian Prime Minister’s office quoted him as saying.
“This challenge, arising from Sri Lanka and the civil war which unfolded in Sri Lanka over the last 12 months - which has been violent and bloody - is causing an outflow of people from Sri Lanka right across the world. Talk to the Europeans about this, you talk to South East Asians about this, you talk to other folk about this. This is a problem for everybody. Therefore, that's why we're dealing so closely with our friends in Indonesia on these challenges. And we will continue to do so without apology,” the Australian Premier added.
Looking back the Premier said that the push factors were not coming from Sri Lanka but from around the world. He said they were coming from political instability in Iraq and Afghanistan at that stage had actually stabilised.
“Since then we have had, in 2008 we've had, according to a report of the UN Secretary-General, one of the most violent years in Afghanistan that there's been since 2001. So Afghanistan is now a push factor. We've had a civil war in Sri Lanka. That's now a push factor. It affects all countries.
So therefore, frankly, the challenges are constantly changing. The pattern of operations by people smugglers are constantly changing. And therefore the tactics that we'll deploy with our friends and partners across the region will be calibrated accordingly. But the strategic-level cooperation between ourselves, the Indonesians and Malaysians is working well, and I commend those Governments for their cooperative efforts with us,” he said.
“In processing any individual, if we have found- if we find that a person is not a legitimate asylum seeker, we send them home. We have already done that in the case of some people that have been sent back to Sri Lanka already. We will continue to do that in the future,” the Australian Prime Minister’s office quoted him as saying.
“This challenge, arising from Sri Lanka and the civil war which unfolded in Sri Lanka over the last 12 months - which has been violent and bloody - is causing an outflow of people from Sri Lanka right across the world. Talk to the Europeans about this, you talk to South East Asians about this, you talk to other folk about this. This is a problem for everybody. Therefore, that's why we're dealing so closely with our friends in Indonesia on these challenges. And we will continue to do so without apology,” the Australian Premier added.
Looking back the Premier said that the push factors were not coming from Sri Lanka but from around the world. He said they were coming from political instability in Iraq and Afghanistan at that stage had actually stabilised.
“Since then we have had, in 2008 we've had, according to a report of the UN Secretary-General, one of the most violent years in Afghanistan that there's been since 2001. So Afghanistan is now a push factor. We've had a civil war in Sri Lanka. That's now a push factor. It affects all countries.
So therefore, frankly, the challenges are constantly changing. The pattern of operations by people smugglers are constantly changing. And therefore the tactics that we'll deploy with our friends and partners across the region will be calibrated accordingly. But the strategic-level cooperation between ourselves, the Indonesians and Malaysians is working well, and I commend those Governments for their cooperative efforts with us,” he said.
