,
5 tweets,
2 min read
Read on Twitter
An #auspol thread - Tampa ship captain voices frustration sbs.com.au/news/tampa-shi… I’ve been thinking about the Tampa incident, this article always gets to me.
‘All these years later, was there any one thing somebody said to him that, above all else, sticks in his mind?’
‘All these years later, was there any one thing somebody said to him that, above all else, sticks in his mind?’
“Ja, there was one man from Nauru who sent me a letter that I should have let him die in the Ind ... the Indian Ocean, instead of picking him up. Because, the conditions on Nauru were terrible. And that is a terrible thing to tell people, that you should have just let them drown”
Out of 433 asylum seekers that were so grateful to be rescued and not turned back on their unseaworthy boat, around 233 were sent to Nauru. The others were taken in by New Zealand where they’ve been happy ever since. The conditions were that bad even back then on Nauru.
Arne Rinnan, the Norwegian Captain is a hero and he and his crew did a heroic thing in saving those people and by not listening to the Howard government. Yet, he’s haunted by a voice: “You should have let me die in the Indian Ocean”.
What unsettles me the most is the Howard government mentality of just ‘send em back’ even if they’re boat is unseaworthy. Is this government doing this today? Are people involved with the turn backs haunted too? How would we know? End.
