Australian families reach out to refugees who travel on boats across the oceans to their shores, in search of a better life
After 22 days on a boat fleeing Sri Lanka and more than fivemonths in detention, asylum-seeker Jeevan Nanthakumar recently unpacked hissuitcases in the home of an Australian pensioner couple. Nanthakumar -- apseudonym -- said he left his homeland and family in January due to"government problems and enemies in my village".
"I went to India, and then was on a boat for 22 days,five days with no food and no water," said the 26-year-old. Nanthakumarand others on the boat were eventually picked up and transferred to the remoteAustralian territory of Christmas Island for a week, then to detention inQueensland state. He is one of more than 7,000 asylum-seekers to arrive by boatthis year -- a record influx that has overwhelmed detention centres and seen areturn to policies of indefinitely detaining boatpeople on remote Pacificislands.
Canberra hopes it will deter asylum-seekers, many originallyfrom Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Iran and Iraq, from paying people-smugglers inSoutheast Asia to help them attempt the perilous sea voyage. In the meantime,aiming to relieve the strain on the detention system, centre-left Labor haslaunched a homestay programme where Australian families temporarily house thoseseeking asylum while their claims are processed. The idea is to offershort-term accommodation to those leaving immigration detention on abridging visa, and help them settle into the community. "We helped him atthe very beginning. My husband drove him to his first Red Cross meeting, showedhim how to come back on a train," said Martha, a retired English professorwho offered shelter to Nanthakumar with her husband Phillip.
Their surname is not allowed to be used under the privacypolicy of the Australian Homestay Network, an organisation that usually helpshouse international students. Nanthakumar spent two weeks with Martha andPhillip at their house in a northern Sydney suburb before finding a morepermanent place to live with other members of the Tamil community.
To live with a host family, asylum-seekers must meet aseries of strict criteria controlled by the Department of Immigration and thescheme is only available to those who have been awarded a bridging visa. Sincethe beginning of the year, the department has issued more than 3,400 such visasto illegal migrants who arrived by sea, allowing them to live and work inAustralia until their permanent protection visa application is completed.
