BABY DETAINED
This desperate couple paid thousands to peoplesmugglers to ship them to New Zealand. Instead, their rusty fishing boat washed up in Indonesia to a hostile reception. We were there as authorities took them into custody.
A mother who gave birth in a refugee camp this week had been bound for New Zealand with a group of 43 other asylum-seekers when their boat’s engine failed off the coast of Indonesia.
Instead, Indonesian authorities sent them to a detention centre just days after their son’s caesarean section birth. Our photographer was there as the family were loaded into an immigration van.
Sivarangini Bakitharam, 32, and her husband Bakitharam Kandasamy, 34, spoke to the Sunday Star-Times about escaping torture, spending eight years in prison in Sri Lanka, and then this week being detained in Aceh – despite the United Nations recognising them as genuine refugees.
The Tamil couple were among 20 men, 15 women and nine children who arrived by boat off the coast of the northern Indonesian province last year.
After 20 days at sea, the group were desperate. Their engine had failed, their captain had disappeared and they were low on fuel. When Indonesian authorities refused to let them off, some of the women jumped off but were forced back on board. The boat could not be towed back to sea, so authorities let them camp on the beach for 10 days.
The authorities eventually decided the boat was no longer seaworthy and took the Tamils to a refugee centre.
The boat people were interviewed by the UN’s refugee agency, but it was
There’s no doubt that New
Zealand is a target for peoplesmugglers and a mass arrival at some stage is a very real possibility. Anna Foley Immigration New Zealand manager
wrongly recorded they were heading to Australia, not New Zealand. ‘‘We knew that Australia had become stricter with its immigration laws; in 2014 they started sending boats back so we decided to get to New Zealand,’’ said Bakitharam Kandasamy. The episode emerges as the Sunday
Star-Times reveals another 11 asylumseekers are being detained in Mt Eden prison in Auckland because they were unable to provide proof of identity when they arrived at New Zealand airports.
Yesterday afternoon, asked about asylum-seekers trying to reach this country by boat, Prime Minister Bill English said he didn’t see New Zealand facing a big influx in the near future.
‘‘I would hope there is zero probability of a mass arrival – we’ve couched our law so that it discourages people coming on boats on what would be a pretty dangerous journey.’’
But Immigration New Zealand manager Anna Foley took a different view: although no boatload of asylumseekers had made it this far, she said, it was only a matter of time.
‘‘There’s no doubt that New Zealand is a target for people-smugglers and a mass arrival at some stage is a very real possibility that we need to be fully prepared for.’’
Speaking through an interpreter, Bakitharam said he and the other Tamils paid the equivalent of NZ$3200 each to an agency in south India, where most of them lived in a refugee camp.
Now, five of the asylum-seekers who reached Aceh have been granted refugee status, 17 have been sent back to Sri Lanka and the remaining 22 are at a detention facility facing deportation.
The agency bought them a boat and hired a captain.
‘‘Only halfway through our journey did we realise we didn’t have enough fuel to pass Indonesia,’’ said Bakitharam. ‘‘They deceived us.’’
The couple waived their legal right to confidentiality to speak out about the treatment of asylum-seekers. They believed the people-smuggling agency exploited their hardship and offered a false promise of reaching New Zealand.
The couple were young recruits for the Sri Lankan Tamil Tiger militant group. They spent eight years in prison in Sri Lanka, and say they were tortured by Sri Lanka’s Criminal Investigation Department. ‘‘All my toenails were removed and both my thumbnails.’’
Just 20 minutes after our videojournalist arrived at the Lhokseumawe refugee centre, Aceh, Indonesian officials came to take the family to the detention facility. Their other son, Rathisan, 2, was already there.
In tears, the couple pleaded to stay. In pain from childbirth, Sivarangini was being forced to move just three days after the birth of her son. ‘‘I’m begging for help. I can’t sit, or stand properly.’’
The couple will join Charu, 27, and her husband Kumar, 29 (not their real names, after their refugee status was denied). They face being deported to Sri Lanka where they fear for their lives.
While one couple have refugee status and the other don’t, they both say they’ve been subject to repeated pressure from refugee agencies to return to Sri Lanka. The International Organisation for Migration declined to comment and the UN refugee agency did not respond to requests for comment before deadline.