Merchant boat forced to hold asylum seeker
The Maritime Union of Australia has told the ABC's Lateline program the man was held in atrocious conditions in a barred locker while the vessel, the Baltimar Euros, was docked in Dampier and Fremantle.
He boarded the ship illegally in Iran on November 23 and made it clear to the ship's master he was seeking refugee status in Australia.
Union official Keith McCorriston says he and others, including Federal Labor MP Carmen Lawrence, intervened on January 24 to have the man released to immigration authorities, minutes before the ship was due to sail for Turkey.
"He was very thin, very distressed. He couldn't speak very much English," Mr McCorriston said.
"He pleaded, the words we got out of him were basically, you know, 'Please help me'.
"We had grave concerns about the condition he was living in and his general wellbeing.
"[The ship's master] said he wanted him off the vessel and he was surprised, he said, that the Government wasn't assisting him.
"Even the departments weren't assisting him. And he was basically told 'This guy's got to be kept on board the vessel, locked up, the story's got to be hushed up' and left at that until such time the vessel left Fremantle, and I believe the next port of call was going to be Turkey."
Pictures on TV showed this unfortunate locked in a room smaller than your average dunny in temperatures up to 40 C. The ever compassionate Howard and his minions don't like Saddam and his minions, and they also give shortshrift to the poor bastards who are fleeing Saddam. "Not in our backyard". Sorry John boy, but the next election is going to be right in your backyard, and your backyard is looking more and more like that of Fred West.
Australia talks tough to UN
Australia has emerged as the strongest supporter of America in the international debate on Iraq, telling the United Nations Security Council that it rejects giving weapons inspectors more time to disarm Saddam Hussein.
Australia was the only nation that used yesterday's special Security Council meeting to declare Iraq in "material breach" of UN resolution 1441, which set up the inspection regime.
Its stance was in contrast to most of the 27 nations that addressed yesterday's session. Most demanded that the inspectors be given more time to disarm Iraq peacefully - defying the intentions of the US and Britain to seek a new resolution authorising war.
Organ grinder George has a well oiled monkey.
