problem in Fiji

Tamil refugees pose problem in Fiji

Fifteen Tamils from Sri Lanka became the first headache for the new Fiji Government soon after its election in April.

The Tamil refugees had arrived in Fiji on an Air New Zealand flight from Singa pore to connect to a Cana dian Airlines flight at Nadi to for Vancouver.

They would have sought political asylum once in Canada but they did not have any visas to enter Canada. The Immigration Officials at Nadi also de tected that they were travel ling on fake passports and their other travel documents were not in order.

The refugees had first travelled from Madras to Maldives and after a week they travelled to Singapore and from there they came to Fiji via Sydney and Auck land. Originally there were

16 Tamils in the group but later one member who was holding a genuine Indian passport and also had valid papers flew out.

Tamil refugees are the centre of controversies in West Germany and Canada where they have entered illegally and have sought asylum. The Tamils are run ning from fighting in Sri Lanka where the Native Sinhalese are protesting against their efforts to create their own independent state on the island. The Tamils complain that the native Sri Lankans are being given preferential treatment while they had done much to develop the island and now form an important part of the Sri Lankan society.

The question was what to do with the Tamils? First the responsibility of taking them back lay with the airline

which had brought them in ...Air New Zealand, but there is no direct flight from Nadi to Singapore..the flights have to go through Auckland and Sydney and both Governments flatly said if the refugees had forged documents they will not be allowed in as transit passengers. Air New Zea land took the responsibility of looking after them while the group ..seven women, five men and four children were kept confined to the transit lounge at Nadi air port. However, the refugees had also threatened to com mit suicide if they were forced to return home.

They claimed they would be tortured and killed if they went back. The Fiji Govern ment could not risk being found guilty in the eyes of the world for not honouring its committment under the UN Human rights Declara

tion if the refugees did carry out their threat nor could it accept them as political re fugees and open the ’flood gates’ for others. As a com promise it moved the re fugees from the airport to a motel in the airport, while negotiations continued on the plight of the Tamils.

Among the options being looked at were that the Canadian Government agrees to accept them on the strength of assurances given by the relatives of the re fugees resident in Canada.

Fiji’s Minister for Immigra tion Mr Jocli Kalou also requested the Indian High Commissioner in Fiji Mr Sreenivasan to ask his coun try to accept the Tamils as political refugees on a temporary basis.

The United Nations High Commissioner for refugees based in Australia Mr Joseph Landau also visited Fiji for talks on the problem. By early May Canada had accepted two of the children on humanitarian grounds and was processing the rest of the application.