No refugee rescue without navy
By Claire Harvey The Australain
12jan02
SHIP captains would be forced to call the navy before rescuing asylum-seekers under new laws being drafted by the Howard Government to avoid a repeat of the Tampa crisis.
Transport Minister John Anderson has ordered his department and the Australian Maritime Safety Authority to draft new protocols for merchant ships that encounter refugee boats in distress in Australian waters.
The changes are designed to clarify the position of ship masters after the Norwegian vessel Tampa prompted a two-week stand-off when it picked up 438 asylum-seekers last year. Captain Arne Rinnan was refused permission to land the refugees on Australian soil and eventually was forced to transfer them to a naval vessel.
Under plans being drafted in Canberra, ships would leave asylum-seeker rescues to the navy, or seek its approval before taking boatpeople aboard, senior government sources have told The Weekend Australian.
They would be then transferred to a navy vessel at sea, according to the protocol.
The move would be unprecedented in maritime law but government sources insisted international conventions requiring mariners to help ships in distress were designed for leisure and commercial craft, not refugee boats.
"The Tampa situation was a pretty unique one - this sort of situation was never envisaged," one source told The Weekend Australian.
"All the search-and-rescue rules are based on the assumption that the people being rescued are two yachties. The new protocol will give certainty to commercial operators to know what to do."
At a meeting in Melbourne on December 13, Mr Anderson told shipping industry representatives there were gaps in the law.
Shipping Australia chairman John Lines said captains would always rescue people in distress, but would prefer to hand them to the navy as quickly as possible.
"We told John Anderson it would be our preference for the navy to deal with these situations. The Government really needs to decide how this is to be attended to, and what role they see the navy playing," Mr Lines said.
"He acknowledged that there was a need for the protocol.
"We were concerned about the way the Tampa issue was dealt with. We wanted to avoid our members getting caught up in that type of thing again."
A spokesman for Mr Anderson confirmed last night that protocols were being drafted and would be shown to shipping industry representatives early next month.
Australian Shipowners Association chief executive Lachlan Payne said it was still unclear what would happen if an Australian rather than a foreign ship picked up asylum-seekers in circumstances such as the Tampa's.
"We contend if it was an Australian ship, the Australian ship could expect that it would not be refused entry to an Australian port and would be able to land people in that situation without any questions asked. We want a guarantee that an Australian ship would in no circumstances be refused entry to an Australian port," Mr Payne said.
Maritime law expert Sarah Derrington said she was unaware of any similar provisions elsewhere.
"There is only the overriding international convention that mariners go to the aid of ships in distress," said Dr Derrington, director of the University of Queensland's Centre for Maritime Law.
The proposed protocol would have to clearly spell out the circumstances in which a mariner would call the navy rather than pick up asylum-seekers, she said.
Legislation passed in September gave Australian officials the authority to board and turn around asylum-seeker boats using "reasonable and necessary force".