A boat laden with refugees is driven onto rocks at Christmas Island in this image taken from video.
A boat laden with refugees is driven onto rocks at Christmas Island in this image taken from video.
A boat laden with refugees is driven onto rocks at Christmas Island in this image taken from video.
A boat laden with refugees is driven onto rocks at Christmas Island in this image taken from video.

Boat tragedy reignites Australian refugee debate


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SYDNEY // The deaths of at least 30 asylum-seekers off the Australian territory of Christmas Island last week have highlighted the dangers facing people fleeing persecution in Iraq and Iran.

Although the precise number of passengers on the boat that smashed into cliffs in mountainous seas on Wednesday is not known, all are believed to have come from Iran and Iraq. Of the 42 survivors, the most seriously injured have been airlifted to Perth, 2,600km to the south-east, while the rest are in Christmas Island's hospital and detention camp.

The shipwreck - footage of which was beamed into living rooms across Australia and around the world - has reignited the bitter refugee debate and catapulted the issue to the top of the political agenda. Julia Gillard, the prime minister, cut short a holiday to announce three separate inquiries and fend off accusations that navy patrol ships should have spotted the wooden fishing boat before it approached the island's treacherous coastline.

The tragic events have also reinforced the perilous nature of the voyage from Indonesia across the Indian Ocean - the final leg for most asylum-seekers trying to reach Australia. Hundreds of lives have been lost at sea in recent years, thanks to the people smugglers who transport passengers in cramped, often unseaworthy boats, after pocketing fees of up to US$25,000 (Dh92,000) per person, according to refugee advocates.

On Christmas Island - just 355km from Java, and the first inhabited Australian land encountered by vessels heading south - the grim task of identifying the dead began this weekend as rescuers scoured the rough seas for more bodies. At least eight children died when the boat hit jagged rocks and broke up, under the horrified gaze of islanders who hurled life vests and ropes into the water.

Many on board were Iranian and Iraqi Kurds, and community groups in Australia have been inundated with anxious calls from those two countries, with people trying to find out whether family members were on the boat. The names and nationalities of victims and survivors have not been released, although the government has set up a hotline for relatives.

The bereaved include one man who was already in Christmas Island's detention centre - Australia's main offshore processing facility - after previously undertaking the same voyage. His wife, uncle and five other relatives perished, Australian officials have confirmed. The survivors include a child who lost both parents in raging seas whipped up by cyclonic weather.

Sighted on December 25, 1643 by a British naval captain, the rugged island - a British colony until 1958 - is populated mainly by Malay and Chinese descendants of indentured workers shipped over in the late 19th century to work in phosphate mines.

In 2001, it became a symbol of Australia's draconian refugee policy, after John Howard's government deployed the military's elite Special Air Service to prevent a Norwegian tanker, the Tampa, from landing with a cargo of shipwrecked Afghans and Iraqis.

Over the past year or so, the number of asylum-seekers reaching its shores has risen dramatically, to more than 6,000 in 2010. Iranians and Iraqis make up the second- and third-largest groups, respectively, after Afghans, with 1,519 people from the two countries claiming asylum so far this year. Kurds are among the 650 stateless people to arrive in 2010.

Jamal Daoud, of the Social Justice Network, which works closely with immigration detainees, believes many people on the wrecked boat were Feyli Kurds - Shiites deported from Iraq to Iran in the 1980s by Saddam Hussein and denied citizenship and basic rights in Iran. "Other Iraqis want to get away from harassment by militia groups or just the general unsafety of Iraq," he said.

Iraqi Christians are another group fleeing persecution; in Iran, meanwhile, religious minorities and political opponents of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president, are under increasing pressure, according to Nasrim Massiri, the spokeswoman for the Iranian Society of Victoria. Young people, in particular, are leaving. Ms Massiri said: "I've been receiving calls from parents in Iran who don't know whether their sons were on that boat, whether they are alive or dead."

The customary route for Middle Eastern asylum-seekers is to fly to Kuala Lumpur, then sail to Indonesia's Java or Sumatra islands. Some wait years in Indonesia before risking their lives and savings on the Indian Ocean crossing. "The sad thing is that they travelled so far and got so close," said Paul Maberly, one of many Christmas Islanders struggling to come to terms with last week's events.

Paul Power, the president of the Refugee Council of Australia, said the shipwreck had reinforced the urgent need for a regional framework establishing better protection for asylum-seekers and refugees in Southeast Asian transit countries. "We want to see a situation where people don't feel there's no other option but to put their lives at risk and be seriously ripped off [by people smugglers]," he said.

In Australia, perhaps for the first time, the disaster gave the asylum-seeker issue a human face. Not even those who dismiss boat people as "queue-jumpers" could have failed to be moved by footage of men, women and children screaming for help as their vessel was dashed to bits.

While the accident was particularly shocking because it was witnessed and filmed, many more asylum-seekers have died at sea unobserved. In the worst instance, 353 people died when their boat sank off Indonesia in 2001.

There are hints that the shipwreck may prove to be a political watershed. Writing in The Australian newspaper yesterday, a key adviser to the ruling Labor Party, Cameron Milner, said it highlighted the need for a more humane approach.

However, Bob Katter, one of three independent MPs propping up Ms Gillard's minority government, called for a tougher stance, describing current policies as an "open honeypot" for asylum-seekers.

How much do leading UAE’s UK curriculum schools charge for Year 6?
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  4. Jumeirah English Speaking School (Dubai) – Dh59,728
  5. Gems Wellington International School – Dubai Branch – Dh58,488
  6. The British School Al Khubairat (Abu Dhabi) - Dh54,170
  7. Dubai English Speaking School – Dh51,269

*Annual tuition fees covering the 2024/2025 academic year

Biog

Mr Kandhari is legally authorised to conduct marriages in the gurdwara

He has officiated weddings of Sikhs and people of different faiths from Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Russia, the US and Canada

Father of two sons, grandfather of six

Plays golf once a week

Enjoys trying new holiday destinations with his wife and family

Walks for an hour every morning

Completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Loyola College, Chennai, India

2019 is a milestone because he completes 50 years in business

 

Conflict, drought, famine

Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

Band Aid

Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.

Ain Dubai in numbers

126: The length in metres of the legs supporting the structure

1 football pitch: The length of each permanent spoke is longer than a professional soccer pitch

16 A380 Airbuses: The equivalent weight of the wheel rim.

9,000 tonnes: The amount of steel used to construct the project.

5 tonnes: The weight of each permanent spoke that is holding the wheel rim in place

192: The amount of cable wires used to create the wheel. They measure a distance of 2,4000km in total, the equivalent of the distance between Dubai and Cairo.

Federer's 19 grand slam titles

Australian Open (5 titles) - 2004 bt Marat Safin; 2006 bt Marcos Baghdatis; 2007 bt Fernando Gonzalez; 2010 bt Andy Murray; 2017 bt Rafael Nadal

French Open (1 title) - 2009 bt Robin Soderling

Wimbledon (8 titles) - 2003 bt Mark Philippoussis; 2004 bt Andy Roddick; 2005 bt Andy Roddick; 2006 bt Rafael Nadal; 2007 bt Rafael Nadal; 2009 bt Andy Roddick; 2012 bt Andy Murray; 2017 bt Marin Cilic

US Open (5 titles) - 2004 bt Lleyton Hewitt; 2005 bt Andre Agassi; 2006 bt Andy Roddick; 2007 bt Novak Djokovic; 2008 bt Andy Murray

F1 The Movie

Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem

Director: Joseph Kosinski

Rating: 4/5

Global state-owned investor ranking by size

1.

United States

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China

3.

UAE

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Japan

5

Norway

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Canada

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Singapore

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Australia

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Saudi Arabia

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South Korea

11 cabbie-recommended restaurants and dishes to try in Abu Dhabi

Iqbal Restaurant behind Wendy’s on Hamdan Street for the chicken karahi (Dh14)

Pathemari in Navy Gate for prawn biryani (from Dh12 to Dh35)

Abu Al Nasar near Abu Dhabi Mall, for biryani (from Dh12 to Dh20)

Bonna Annee at Navy Gate for Ethiopian food (the Bonna Annee special costs Dh42 and comes with a mix of six house stews – key wet, minchet abesh, kekel, meser be sega, tibs fir fir and shiro).

Al Habasha in Tanker Mai for Ethiopian food (tibs, a hearty stew with meat, is a popular dish; here it costs Dh36.75 for lamb and beef versions)

Himalayan Restaurant in Mussaffa for Nepalese (the momos and chowmein noodles are best-selling items, and go for between Dh14 and Dh20)

Makalu in Mussaffa for Nepalese (get the chicken curry or chicken fry for Dh11)

Al Shaheen Cafeteria near Guardian Towers for a quick morning bite, especially the egg sandwich in paratha (Dh3.50)

Pinky Food Restaurant in Tanker Mai for tilapia

Tasty Zone for Nepalese-style noodles (Dh15)

Ibrahimi for Pakistani food (a quarter chicken tikka with roti costs Dh16)

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While you're here
THE BIO

Born: Mukalla, Yemen, 1979

Education: UAE University, Al Ain

Family: Married with two daughters: Asayel, 7, and Sara, 6

Favourite piece of music: Horse Dance by Naseer Shamma

Favourite book: Science and geology

Favourite place to travel to: Washington DC

Best advice you’ve ever been given: If you have a dream, you have to believe it, then you will see it.

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