In the past few years in Australia there's been an incredible surge in the number of asylum seekers that arrive by boats, and most of them are of Iranian origin. Many of them are highly educated or either "Christian or secular". Yet all their stories are the same: they want to seek a better future in Australia. Makes me wonder how life is inside Iran. Those sanctions must be really biting.
Desperate Iranian asylum seekers willing to risk death
Iranian asylum seeker puzzle
PS Why on earth does Iran refuse to take back asylum seekers ?:s
Desperate Iranian asylum seekers willing to risk death
Like Atena and her family, 33-year-old Noruz came to Indonesia from Tehran barely a month ago, seeking a passage to Australia that ended near dawn on Saturday in panic, desperation and the horror of mass drowning.
Both were on the upper deck during the capsize. The 120 or so who were below had almost no chance, says Syed Muhammad Zia, a self-assured young man from Quetta, in Pakistan, who has assumed the role of the survivors' spokesman.
"Most of the people came out through the windows and died in front of our eyes," he says.
"I saw their dead bodies floating on the sea.
"We witnessed all of this, all of this madness and death. One boat saved all of us, today we are here living for the sake of that boat."
Still, Syed says, they will try the perilous journey to Australia again.
"Tomorrow, when we get outside, we are going to take the boat again, because back there (in Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan) we cannot go, our lives are in danger," he says. "And here we cannot afford to be."
Atena was among the 34 who survived the maelstrom of the capsize and clung for more than six hours to the almost-submerged fishing boat. So did Noruz but an estimated 200 did not.
Of the estimated 20 children on the boat only four have survived, among them five-year-old Amir Ali, who survived with his father Mohammad Hadi Pariwash, another Hazara from Pakistan. But the rest of their immediate family are lost: wife and mother Leila Gerawardi, Amir's seven-year-old sister Paria and brother, 10-month-old Amir Hussain.
Noruz says that "more and more of us are leaving Iran, choosing a dangerous way to make a new life, to find a good future".
Atena's parents' dangerous choice has left her an orphan.
Her prospects are uncertain, to say the least. Indonesian immigration officials mutter hopefully about sending her back to relatives, if they can be found. Noruz insists: "Now we are looking after her."
Almost all the survivors are struggling with their own harsh losses. Syed and Esmat Adine, a voluble Afghan Hazara, point them out around the hotel common room.
There is Daoud Valadbeigi, a strapping 26-year-old Iranian who breaks into tears again at that moment. He has lost his two children, his wife, his brother, his brother's wife, cousins -- 11 people in all. "My two uncles and my two cousins are lost," Esmat says, "and there were lots of close friends."
Twelve-year-old Mahmood Abbas also presents a special problem for the Immigration authorities. His aged father sent Mahmood alone from Pakistan "because things were very, very hard for them there, and he cannot go back," says Syed. Of the 15 women who were on the boat, only 26-year-old Mastureh Minaee appears to have been saved. She was friends with two other families on the boat: 12 people, all gone.
If the aftermath of this tragedy is the same as previous sinkings in Indonesian waters, the adult survivors will be kept under some loose form of detention by the authorities for a week or so, and then be allowed to drift away.
Inevitably, and in spite of their dreadful experiences, most will try to find another boat to Australia, according to Syed. They only came to Indonesia with one purpose and now, if they stay, they are trapped. "The Australian government, they should do something for us and take us away from here, because we deserve a good life, we deserve a good future, we are not someone who makes violence, we love peace," Syed says. "We know (Australians) don't want us to come by boat, but what can we do? There are hundreds of us, thousands of us, and they risk their lives to come seeking for a better future."
Iranian asylum seeker puzzle
AUSTRALIA is scrambling to deal with 1500 Iranians who risk languishing for years in immigration detention because they cannot be deported.
More than 40 per cent of asylum seekers who arrived by boat in the past year were Iranians and, of the ones assessed, about two-thirds have had their application for refugee status rejected.
Because Iran will not allow Australia to send the Iranians home, Immigration Minister Chris Bowen faces the choice of locking them up indefinitely, releasing them into the community or attempting to reach agreement to transport them to a third country.
"The Iranian government has rejected several requests from the Australian government to facilitate the return of failed asylum seekers," Mr Bowen told The Sunday Telegraph yesterday. "Obviously I am examining all the options.
"These are people who are not regarded as refugees. Two-thirds are regarded as not genuine refugees."
Mr Bowen warned that if the Iranians were involved in riots or criminal behaviour in detention they would not be candidates for community release.
Immigration officials have also raised concerns that the Iranians, largely educated, middle-class families, were also "demanding" in detention and in some cases involved in riots and protests.
Refugee advocate Pamela Curr blamed the prospect of years in detention as a factor in claims that Iranians were demanding, suggesting security staff were also disrespectful to detainees.
One Iranian community representative said: "Ninety-nine per cent of people who come on boats are educated and they have money. They don't need government help when they get out. So I have no idea why they are being kept in detention for so long."
PS Why on earth does Iran refuse to take back asylum seekers ?:s
