Tamils have reasons to seek asylum: NZ Herald editorial

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 July 2011, 17:22 GMT]
“Sri Lanka has not long emerged from a long and bloody civil war. The Sinhalese Government would not allow media to witness the way it finally crushed the Tamil rebellion. Anyone afraid to remain in that country probably has cause. They deserve compassion even though no country can afford to welcome refugees who bypass the international channels for resettling them somewhere safe, said New Zealand Herald editorial on Monday on the question of 85 Eezham Tamil asylum seekers heading for New Zealand in a boat and were detained by Indonesia. The Prime Minister of New Zealand was uncharacteristically blunt about the boatload of asylum seekers when he said, "They are not welcome here," the editorial of the reputed NZ newspaper said.

“The Green Party is probably not alone in finding this message unpleasant,” NZ Herald said on the Green Party coming out with fierce criticism on the Prime Minister of New Zealand in the parliament.

“It seems unlikely that boatpeople would be mere "economic refugees" seeking a better living standard. There must be easier and safer ways to enter a country illegally than to put to sea in a small, overcrowded craft and hope to arrive unseen in the arid, deserted wastes of Australia.”

“These people set out in the knowledge there is a better-than-equal chance they will perish at sea or be intercepted and sent to an unknown detention centre to await an uncertain fate. They are throwing themselves to fortune like people who have nothing to lose. The poorest of people have something to lose, unless their life is threatened,” the editorial said.

“Boatpeople would not be welcome, as Mr Key rightly warns, but they would be accommodated while their case was considered and welcomed if their need proved genuine. He should say that too,” opined the editorial.

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Editorial: Asylum seekers deserve some compassion