Taliban calls on UN to help blockaded refugees

The ruling Taliban Islamic Movement of Afghanistan has called on the United Nations to help a group of Afghan refugees on board a ship which is being held in Australian territorial waters off Christmas Island, and being prevented from making its intended passage to the Australian mainland.

“If the UN does not help these refugees to go to such countries [as Australia], it is a violation of human rights,” a spokesman for the Taliban embassy in Islamabad, Mohammad Suhail Shaheen, told IRIN.

An Indonesian-registered ferry carrying some 400 refugees, most of them Afghans, was bound for Australia when it started to sink; the refugees were rescued by a Norwegian freighter on Sunday, 26 August.

On Wednesday, Australian troops boarded the vessel to prevent it from approaching the Australian mainland.
The Canberra government called on Indonesia to take responsibility for the asylum seekers, but that demand was rejected. Indonesia has said it will take military action to prevent the ship returning, the Associated Press news agency reported.

Meanwhile, Norway has reported Australia to the UN for refusing to allow the ship to enter its territory and Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has warned that the Norwegian ship will be moved out of Australian waters by force if necessary.

He said he wanted to send a message to the gangs who traffick illegally in people that Australia was determined to stop this “ugly trade.”

“The ships come illegally into our waters and we, like any country, ... want to protect the territorial integrity of our country... and so we are still asking for the ship to leave,” the BBC quoted him as saying.

The Taliban’s Foreign Minister, Wakil Ahmad Motawakkil, has written to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan appealing for the UN to take control of the situation, according to Shaheen, in the movement’s Islamabad embassy.

He complained that UN sanctions imposed on Afghanistan were forcing thousands of Afghans out of the country and placing them in vulnerable situations. “Our people have no choice but to leave. The sanctions are hurting the people,” he added.

A UN report to the Security Council in July found that, although there were adverse humanitarian effects resulting from the sanctions regime, they paled in significance compared to the effects of war and drought.

It concluded that the scope and magnitude of adverse humanitarian effects were “greatly exceeded by the effects of other factors causing suffering - notably the unprecedented drought, continuation of the conflict and widespread deprivation of human rights”.

Shaheen said that the blockaded Afghan refugees had a “right to live a normal life”, and that the international community should intervene to persuade one of the countries involved to take care of them.

“We cannot provide for these people in Afghanistan. We have no infrastructure,” he said.

The issue was also reported to have been raised by the Taliban during a meeting with Australian, US and German diplomats visiting the Afghan capital, Kabul, to see eight foreign aid workers detained on charges of promoting Christianity.

Meanwhile, the health of the Afghan refugees aboard the ‘Tampa’ freighter in Christmas Island is giving cause for concern, as the captain of the Norwegian ship has said they are in need of medical help.

The Australian army has said that none of them is seriously ill, according to an AFP report. The Australians have sent emergency food and medical supplies to the ship.

On Thursday, 30 August, the UN High Commission for Refugees issued a statement expressing “growing concern” over the continuing plight of the asylum seekers, many of whom are women and children.

“There must be an opportunity for any asylum claim to be given a thorough and careful examination. The chances of this taking place aboard the ship are scant,” said UNHCR’s director of international protection in Geneva, Switzerland, Erika Feller.

Refugee agency officials have also raised concern over draft legislation rejected by the Australian Senate on Wednesday, which could have led to the rejection of asylum seekers at the frontier by the forcible removal of ships from territorial waters.

“This would not have been compatible with the 1951 Refugee Convention,” UNHCR stated.

The refugee agency said it was willing to assist the Australian government to find a solution, which may involve “some form of responsibility-sharing between states”.