Fed: UN refugee agency calls for compassion for East Timorese

AAP General News (Australia)
12-27-2001
Fed: UN refugee agency calls for compassion for East Timorese

CANBERRA, Dec 27 AAP - The United Nations refugee agency today backed calls for East
Timorese asylum seekers wanting to stay in Australia to be given special consideration.

Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock dismissed requests from refugee lawyers that 1,600
East Timorese asylum seekers, some who arrived eight years ago, be allowed to stay in
Australia.

He said refugee places in Australia's humanitarian programs were scarce and should
not be allocated to those whose homeland was now safe and secure.

But the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said applications for asylum should
be considered on a case-by-case basis.

UNHCR worker Jake Morland said East Timor was relatively safe but some people would
still have difficulties returning because of links to the former Indonesian administration
or the amount of time spent away.

"I think for the majority the situation is safe to return, however it all depends on
individual cases - for some the situation is not yet right and it may never be right for
return," he told AAP from Dili.

"Even non-refugees would understand that eight years is certainly a very long time,
you've put down new roots, you have children born in these new countries, they are educated
there, it would be difficult for anyone to then think of uprooting again."

Mr Morland said most of the 70,000 East Timorese refugees in Indonesia wanted to go
back but governments had to show compassion to those who wanted to stay in their adopted
homelands.

"These people aren't objects, these people are individuals with their own stories,
their own histories and they need to be dealt with with consideration," he said.

The federal government this week suspended refugee claims of Afghan asylum seekers
following the demise of the Taliban regime, raising fears it might do the same for East
Timorese.

Mr Ruddock said the only reason their claims had taken so long to resolve was because
of legal action launched by refugee advocates.

AAP kmh/daw/gmw/br

KEYWORD: TIMOR AUST LEAD

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