via CAAI News Media
Conor Duffy reported this story on Thursday, March 4, 2010
ELEANOR HALL: The Jesuit scholar and refugee advocate, Father Frank Brennan, is accusing the UN body responsible for processing refugee applications in Cambodia of failing in its duty of care to 20 Uighur asylum seekers.
The Jesuit Refugee Service repeatedly asked the UNHCR (united Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) to speed up the Uighur applications warning that there was a risk the applicants could be forcibly deported.
The 20 asylum seekers have now been deported to China, as Conor Duffy reports from Bangkok.
CONOR DUFFY: Father Frank Brennan's article sets out the frantic warnings issued by the Jesuit Refugee Service in December last year.
China's Vice President was about to visit and JRS's legal officer Taya Hunt was increasingly concerned deportation to China was a real risk.
At the time UNHCR and the Cambodian Government were jointly processing refugee applications in a system UNHCR hoped would become a model for the region.
Father Frank Brennan says it clearly hasn't worked.
FRANK BRENNAN: UNHCR has always had a very difficult role to play in Cambodia because it's had the responsibility over the many years of assisting with the processing of refugees, particularly when there have been politically unpalatable groups such as the Montagnards fleeing regularly from Vietnam.
This has meant that UNHCR has had to make the political assessment each time as to how much it will allow itself to be compromised in dealing with the Cambodian Government in the hope that simply by being inside the tent they might have some prospects of improving the appeal procedures for these asylum seekers.
I think what we've seen with the Montagnards and clearly now with these Uighurs is that there is no dividend at all for the asylum seekers.
CONOR DUFFY: He says the case of the Uighurs and other refugees from Vietnam shows asylum seeker outcomes are worse and UNHCR's good name has suffered.
FRANK BRENNAN: I think UNHCR has been greatly compromised by this, as they have previously many times in relation to the Montagnards.
CONOR DUFFY: UNHCR insists all the blame for the deportations lies with the Cambodian Government.
A number of human rights groups are now trying to get access to the Uighurs in China. Their fate is unknown but it's believed some were involved in riots in Xinjiang province last year.
According to Chinese state media 22 Uighurs have been sentenced to death over their involvement in the riots.
Information supplied by the Chinese Embassy in Canberra suggests some of the Cambodian detainees are likely to face trial.
A press officer at the Chinese Embassy directed AM to a comment from the Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman on the 20 Uighurs, which reads:
"As far as I know, some of those are criminal suspects, suspected of involvement in such crimes as arson and illegal manufacture of explosives. China's judicial authorities will deal with them in accordance with the law. And their lawful rights and interests will be guaranteed."
Father Frank Brennan says he is also concerned about the growing influence China has over countries like Cambodia, saying it will undo years of work by Australian agencies.
FRANK BRENNAN: Australia is seen as one of the countries which has invested heavily in Cambodia in terms of the development of the rule of law but unfortunately it would seem the situation has now been reached in Cambodia where China, now in a situation not only to contribute significantly but also in a situation of negotiating major business deals, is able to trample on those developments.
CONOR DUFFY: Australia's Foreign Minister Stephen Smith is in India and was unable to provide a response to Father Brennan's comments or on the criticisms of the UNHCR.
ELEANOR HALL: Conor Duffy.
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