INHUMANE SACRIFICE

Australian government rushes to 'excise' islands from migration zone

The federal government yesterday excised the islands after a boat carrying 14 asylum seekers landed at Melville Island, near Darwin.
The regulations, which are deemed to have come into effect from midnight yesterday, mean the asylum seekers could be processed in a overseas detention centre, instead of in Australia.
The HMAS Geelong picked up the passengers, who claimed to be Turkish Kurds, and four crew from the Tiwi Islands, 75 kilometers orth of Darwin, the capital of Northern Territory province, Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said. She said the boat was towed away and the government was mulling what to do with the asylum seekers. She would not say where they were being taken.
Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio reported the asylum seekers were being taken to the remote Australian territory of Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, 1800 kilometers from the west Australian mainland. The island has an immigration detention center.
Senator Vanstone played down reports some of the asylum seekers may have set foot on Melville Island, which some legal experts believe may effect their legal status.

[Local Milikapiti community management council chairman Gibson Farmer said he and three other islanders had spoken to the asylum-seekers, who were of Middle Eastern appearance, after their boat ran aground. Immigration officers have ordered islanders not to speak to the media.]