Guardian: Community leaders, campaigners and students from the Hazara community in Pakistan have reacted angrily to the announcement from the prime minister, Kevin Rudd, that all asylum seekers who arrive inAustralia by boat will be sent to Papua New Guinea for processing and resettlement, and none will be allowed to stay in Australia.
Calling the new policy “shameful” and “inhuman”, Hazaras interviewed this weekend denied that they were economic migrants hoping to get rich in the west.
A high proportion of those arriving in Australia by boat are Hazara, an ethnic minority in Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan which has historically suffered persecution. Most pay substantial amounts of money to be smuggled across Malaysia and Indonesia before being put on boats to Australia. Several hundred have died in shipwrecks attempting the journey.
“We are being bombed and shot at every day. If we could stay here we would prefer to be here with our families and friends. But we don’t want to be killed,” said Ahmed Kohzad, a campaigner in the south-west Pakistani city of Quetta, where many Hazara live.
Categories: Asia