PAKISTAN: UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES RUUD LUBBERS SPEAKS ABOUT PROBLEMS WITH REFUGEES

Record ID: 275161

  • Title: PAKISTAN: UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES RUUD LUBBERS SPEAKS ABOUT PROBLEMS WITH REFUGEES
  • Date: 30th October 2001
  • Summary: ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN (OCTOBER 30, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. WIDE OF NEWS CONFERENCE 0.09 2. C/A JOURNALISTS 0.13 3. SCU SOUNDBITE (English) UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES, RUUD LUBBERS: "They (Australia) should support our efforts here, they should support efforts for reconstruction in Afghanistan, the projects we're
  • Embargoed: 14th November 2001 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN
  • Country: Pakistan
  • Reuters ID: LVA2KHA52N66D8EWGRJQ4WZO1KKV
  • Story Text: The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud
    Lubbers, has said that Australia's resistance to accepting
    refugees had hindered his efforts to persuade other countries
    to do likewise.



    Lubbers said that while he understood Australia's
    reluctance, humanitarian concerns should come first.

    "It makes it more difficult. It's not fair to blame this
    only on Australia. There are more countries with the same
    attitude. It seems to be more popular as a politician if you
    make speeches to keep the people out and although I understand
    that each Prime Minister and President has to look in the
    first place - that's his public responsibility - for his
    people. I think it's part of the quality of the people to be
    humanitarian at the same time. And in that sense I am
    positive about the President (Musharraf) here that at least in
    his speeches and in his discussion with me he set a principle
    for those who really need it, hardship cases: I cannot have
    the flood of people coming in but in a selective way I like to
    work with you, I will accommodate those people. And I hope
    his people are going to do that now," said Lubbers.

    Lubbers spoke in Islamabad on the same day that the
    Australian navy rescued 229 mostly Muslim asylum seekers and
    five crew before their rickety vessel sank off Australia's
    Christmas Island.

    The boat, the latest in a stream of vessels carrying
    illegal immigrants from Indonesia to Australia's remote
    northwest coast, had been sheltering off the Indian Ocean
    island when the navy decided the vessel was at risk of sinking
    and took action.

    More than 350 asylum seekers and refugees drowned in the
    Java Sea off Indonesia in mid-October after their overcrowded
    Indonesian vessel sank enroute to Australia.

    Australia's conservative government said the tragic
    sinking would not deter it from continuing to turn away asylum
    boats before they arrived, or intercepting the vessels and
    taking their human cargo to Pacific islands for processing.

    Since August, Canberra has intercepted boat people and
    sent them to Pacific islands for processing, a policy that has
    drawn international criticism but boosted popular support for
    the government ahead of a November 10 general election.

    Recent arrivals have been flown to Papua New Guinea's
    Manus Island or shipped to Nauru after Australia struck deals
    with both countries to process the boat people in return for
    financial aid.

    Canberra has also approached Fiji, Palau and Kiribati in
    an effort to find more places for the flow of boat people.



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