Iraqi Asylum Seekers-Grief of boat tragedy laid bare under grey sky

MrIraq · February 17th, 2011, 12:48 PM

WITH wails of grief, tears of sorrow and impassioned pleas for the Australian government to show mercy to survivors, three victims of last December's boat tragedy off Christmas Island were laid to rest in Sydney's Rookwood Cemetery.

They included two Iraqi children: three-month-old Sam al-Hussainy, whose mother and sister are still missing, and eight-month-old Zahra

el-Ibrahimy, whose mother and brother were also lost at sea.

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A woman is overcome with grief at Sydney's Rookwood cemetery, where two Iraqi children and an Iranian man were buried. Photo: Nick Moir
The third person was an Iranian, identified only as Farhan, whose eight-year-old son, Sinan, attended his burial in the Muslim section of the western suburbs cemetery yesterday.

At Sydney's Castlebrook Cemetery, five more coffins were lowered into the ground - those of a husband and wife, their young son and daughter and an aunt.

A little girl in a purple dress and leggings stood out against eight weeping family members and friends dressed in black.

The family were Christian Protestants from Iran, all of whom died seeking asylum in Australia.

''They had aspirations and ambitions. They had dreams of a better life and they came to our country searching for something,'' said the Anglican minister who conducted their service, the Reverend David Misztal. ''They desperately wanted a place to call home.''

For the detainees, for their families, for the hundreds of other mourners and supporters who gathered at Rookwood and Castlebrook under drizzly grey skies, it was a desperately sad occasion.

It was also part media circus, part political protest, as the Rookwood ceremony ended and detainees mixed briefly with reporters and public supporters.

Such hopeful strivings for a new life in Australia ended like this: survivors joined in sorrow on a roadside plot that was shaded by gum and paperbark trees, littered with freshly dug mounds of red dirt and crossed by concrete paths and lines of gravestones.

Officially an ''unaccompanied minor'', Sinan was among 22 detainees flown into Sydney on Monday, kept overnight at an undisclosed location and bussed across the city to the funerals. The group also included Madian

el-Ibrahimy, 25. He had made the

perilous journey from Indonesia to Australia four months earlier, only to have his wife, Zman, son Nzar, 4, and daughter Zahra, perish just metres from a family reunion on Christmas Island, where he was being held.

Mr el-Ibrahimy defied attempts by security guards to prevent him and other detainees speaking to the invited media after the short ceremony.

He pleaded to stay in Sydney with relatives, including his brother, Oday.

''I have lost everything, my wife, my kids. We are living in very harsh conditions.''

Speaking through an interpreter, he said immigration officials had prevented the bereaved from making appropriate arrangements for a Muslim burial.

''They did not consult with us. They did not allow us to follow the rules of our religion,'' said Mr el-Ibrahimy, whose father was executed on the orders of the late Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Family and friends of the Christians, most of them detainees on Christmas Island, sang and cried as they scattered flowers on the graves.

The Australian Federal Police refused to release the names of the victims, saying doing so could jeopardise claims of remaining detainees.

The family of four other victims on asylum-seeker vessel SIEV 221 had the bodies flown to Iraq after expressing concern over arrangements in Sydney.

On one Rookwood tombstone, belonging to Badri Saeed Farsi, who died last year, the inscription read, ''We have to treat others as part of who we are, rather than 'them' with whom we are.''

Imam Yonis al-Muzafar, who led the Rookwood ceremony, reminded people that the ''circumstances were exceptional'', though he urged the government to show more humanity towards the detainees.

''They have suffered so much. They have lost much. Australia is a free country, a big country, a good country. It can surely do more to help them,'' he said.

Suddenly, the ceremony was over. Allowed only minutes to speak with a brother whom he had just met for the first time in four years, Mr el-Ibrahimy and the others were led back to a black-windowed bus.

''Shame! Shame! Shame!'' sympathisers chanted. ''Let them stay! Let them stay!''

A quick show of hands suggested more than a dozen were prepared to offer rooms in their homes to the dejected detainees.

Earlier, the soft-spoken imam was pointedly asked what lessons the Christmas Island tragedy held for other asylum seekers who were tempted to try to reach Australia by boat.

It would be an act of desperation, he suggested.

''Arriving by boat should be the last resort - or not considered at all.''

Theirs also a video about it;

http://www.theage.com.au/national/gr...215-1av4j.html

sheytanElKebir · February 17th, 2011, 12:56 PM

we are hated in these countries. We are subhumans to the Europeans/Americans/Australians.

MrIraq · February 17th, 2011, 01:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sheytanElKebir

we are hated in these countries. We are subhumans to the Europeans/Americans/Australians.

honestly, i think its the mistake of the people coming in the first place. its a big risk, and then its very costly its like 6000$+ per person. and the outcome? ...

MrIraq · February 17th, 2011, 01:43 PM

look at the opposition of australia, they are the most anti iraqi arab muslim, people to exsist. They are saying that the funeral was a waste of money, and these people dont deserve it.

just listen what he says at 0:49 to the iraqi guy "can u please **** off"

***BigDreamer*** · February 17th, 2011, 01:50 PM

guys, i have to disagree with your assessment. they are anti refugee, not anti Iraqi..

btw, the guy who said it was a waste of money apologized yesterday.

MrIraq · February 17th, 2011, 01:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigDreamer

guys, i have to disagree with your assessment. they are anti refugee, not anti Iraqi..

btw, the guy who said it was a waste of money apologized yesterday.

did he? ... well he shoulda thout twice before saying it the hmar.

sheytanElKebir · May 19th, 2011, 01:48 PM

Karbala, May 18 (AKnews) - The Swedish ambassador to Iraq denied claims of a behind-the-curtains deal between the two countries to deport Iraqis in return for loans being dropped.

Refugee groups have alleged that deals were signed between Iraq and certain EU countries by which Iraq would receive deported Iraqi refugees and in exchange, debts owed to these countries would be cancelled.

"What is circulated on the media about a deal... to deport Iraqis is not true," Ambassador Karl Magnus said, adding that, "we reject asylum only to Kurds because the Kurdistan Region is enjoying security and economic stability therefore Kurdish Iraqi citizens do not need asylum in our country."

Mr. Magnus was speaking at a contract signing ceremony in Karbala between the Swedish truck maker, Scania, and the Iraqifirm, al-Raw'aa, to open a maintenance branch in the province.

Britain, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland started in 2005 the forced deportation of Iraqis and Kurdish refugees back to Kurdistan via Baghdad.

Mr Magnus said there were some 62,000 Iraqis in Sweden, making up 2% of the total population.

Over the past five years, EU countries have turned down the applications of almost 5,500 Iraqi Kurds for asylum. Since the beginning of 2011 some 200 to 250 Kurdish asylum seekers, most of whom are from the Kurdistan Region - have been deported.

The International Federation of Iraqi Refuges has criticized the position of the European countries, accusing them of double standards, saying it is too dangerous for their own citizens to visit many parts of Iraq whilst insisting that it is safe enough for refugees to return.

The secretary of the group Amanj Abdullah told AKnews that some 60,000 Kurds were awaiting deportation.

"If this deportation continues, some 50,000 to 60,000 refugees will be sent back to Iraq," he said, "...that represents an army of unemployed people that will create problems for both the regional and federal governments."

Abdullah said the rights of the deportees are often violated. Aside from being sent back forcibly, they are usually handcuffed and accompanied by guards who have been reported to have subjected them to "beatings" and "insults".

Mr Magnus insisted today however that "The Swedish government sends back Iraqis in a respectable manner via special airplanes and not forcefully as some imagine," he said

A UK Border Agency spokesman said to the BBC in August 2010: "Currently we have an agreement with the government of Iraq to return all Iraqi citizens to Baghdad".

The spokesman did not however disclose any details of the "deal" in question.

The British Prime Minister David Cameron has repeatedly defended his country's decision to send asylum seekers back to Iraq.

"It is important to remember that one of the reasons that our brave servicemen and women fought and died in Iraq was to try and make that a more stable country and a country that people who had fled it would be able to return to," Cameron said in June last year amid mounting pressure from the United Nations high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) not to repatriate Iraqi asylum seekers.

"Iraq continues to suffer from the effects of this war and people should not be sent back there," said Dashty Jamal from the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees (IFIR).

Ishtarporten · July 21st, 2012, 06:15 PM

Most hated people in Sweden are Assyrian, Kurds and Iranian because some of them are aggressive and unemployed!!

sheytanElKebir · July 21st, 2012, 06:24 PM

what about the "rafha boys"? and rosengordiye?

Ishtarporten · July 21st, 2012, 06:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sheytanElKebir

what about the "rafha boys"? and rosengordiye?

Rosengård is the place of these homeboys (Assyrian,Kurds and Iranian) and what is rafha boys?

sheytanElKebir · July 21st, 2012, 08:06 PM

the southern iraqi refugees from rafha camp who went to sweden after 1991... they are mostly in rosengord/malmo and goteborg too AFAIK (when I visited in 1997 or so).

Ishtarporten · July 23rd, 2012, 08:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sheytanElKebir

the southern iraqi refugees from rafha camp who went to sweden after 1991... they are mostly in rosengord/malmo and goteborg too AFAIK (when I visited in 1997 or so).

Most of them moved away from Rosengård.

February 17th, 2011, 12:48 PM	#1
MrIraq BANNED Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Melbourne Posts: 218 Likes (Received): 0	Iraqi Asylum Seekers-Grief of boat tragedy laid bare under grey sky WITH wails of grief, tears of sorrow and impassioned pleas for the Australian government to show mercy to survivors, three victims of last December's boat tragedy off Christmas Island were laid to rest in Sydney's Rookwood Cemetery. They included two Iraqi children: three-month-old Sam al-Hussainy, whose mother and sister are still missing, and eight-month-old Zahra el-Ibrahimy, whose mother and brother were also lost at sea. Advertisement: Story continues below A woman is overcome with grief at Sydney's Rookwood cemetery, where two Iraqi children and an Iranian man were buried. Photo: Nick Moir The third person was an Iranian, identified only as Farhan, whose eight-year-old son, Sinan, attended his burial in the Muslim section of the western suburbs cemetery yesterday. At Sydney's Castlebrook Cemetery, five more coffins were lowered into the ground - those of a husband and wife, their young son and daughter and an aunt. A little girl in a purple dress and leggings stood out against eight weeping family members and friends dressed in black. The family were Christian Protestants from Iran, all of whom died seeking asylum in Australia. ''They had aspirations and ambitions. They had dreams of a better life and they came to our country searching for something,'' said the Anglican minister who conducted their service, the Reverend David Misztal. ''They desperately wanted a place to call home.'' For the detainees, for their families, for the hundreds of other mourners and supporters who gathered at Rookwood and Castlebrook under drizzly grey skies, it was a desperately sad occasion. It was also part media circus, part political protest, as the Rookwood ceremony ended and detainees mixed briefly with reporters and public supporters. Such hopeful strivings for a new life in Australia ended like this: survivors joined in sorrow on a roadside plot that was shaded by gum and paperbark trees, littered with freshly dug mounds of red dirt and crossed by concrete paths and lines of gravestones. Officially an ''unaccompanied minor'', Sinan was among 22 detainees flown into Sydney on Monday, kept overnight at an undisclosed location and bussed across the city to the funerals. The group also included Madian el-Ibrahimy, 25. He had made the perilous journey from Indonesia to Australia four months earlier, only to have his wife, Zman, son Nzar, 4, and daughter Zahra, perish just metres from a family reunion on Christmas Island, where he was being held. Mr el-Ibrahimy defied attempts by security guards to prevent him and other detainees speaking to the invited media after the short ceremony. He pleaded to stay in Sydney with relatives, including his brother, Oday. ''I have lost everything, my wife, my kids. We are living in very harsh conditions.'' Speaking through an interpreter, he said immigration officials had prevented the bereaved from making appropriate arrangements for a Muslim burial. ''They did not consult with us. They did not allow us to follow the rules of our religion,'' said Mr el-Ibrahimy, whose father was executed on the orders of the late Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Family and friends of the Christians, most of them detainees on Christmas Island, sang and cried as they scattered flowers on the graves. The Australian Federal Police refused to release the names of the victims, saying doing so could jeopardise claims of remaining detainees. The family of four other victims on asylum-seeker vessel SIEV 221 had the bodies flown to Iraq after expressing concern over arrangements in Sydney. On one Rookwood tombstone, belonging to Badri Saeed Farsi, who died last year, the inscription read, ''We have to treat others as part of who we are, rather than 'them' with whom we are.'' Imam Yonis al-Muzafar, who led the Rookwood ceremony, reminded people that the ''circumstances were exceptional'', though he urged the government to show more humanity towards the detainees. ''They have suffered so much. They have lost much. Australia is a free country, a big country, a good country. It can surely do more to help them,'' he said. Suddenly, the ceremony was over. Allowed only minutes to speak with a brother whom he had just met for the first time in four years, Mr el-Ibrahimy and the others were led back to a black-windowed bus. ''Shame! Shame! Shame!'' sympathisers chanted. ''Let them stay! Let them stay!'' A quick show of hands suggested more than a dozen were prepared to offer rooms in their homes to the dejected detainees. Earlier, the soft-spoken imam was pointedly asked what lessons the Christmas Island tragedy held for other asylum seekers who were tempted to try to reach Australia by boat. It would be an act of desperation, he suggested. ''Arriving by boat should be the last resort - or not considered at all.'' Theirs also a video about it; http://www.theage.com.au/national/gr...215-1av4j.html

February 17th, 2011, 12:56 PM	#2
sheytanElKebir stsirorret dedrater kcuf Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: nwot rorret ibahaw Posts: 8,170 Likes (Received): 326	we are hated in these countries. We are subhumans to the Europeans/Americans/Australians. __________________ IRAQ.

May 19th, 2011, 01:48 PM	#7
sheytanElKebir stsirorret dedrater kcuf Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: nwot rorret ibahaw Posts: 8,170 Likes (Received): 326	Karbala, May 18 (AKnews) - The Swedish ambassador to Iraq denied claims of a behind-the-curtains deal between the two countries to deport Iraqis in return for loans being dropped. Refugee groups have alleged that deals were signed between Iraq and certain EU countries by which Iraq would receive deported Iraqi refugees and in exchange, debts owed to these countries would be cancelled. "What is circulated on the media about a deal... to deport Iraqis is not true," Ambassador Karl Magnus said, adding that, "we reject asylum only to Kurds because the Kurdistan Region is enjoying security and economic stability therefore Kurdish Iraqi citizens do not need asylum in our country." Mr. Magnus was speaking at a contract signing ceremony in Karbala between the Swedish truck maker, Scania, and the Iraqifirm, al-Raw'aa, to open a maintenance branch in the province. Britain, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland started in 2005 the forced deportation of Iraqis and Kurdish refugees back to Kurdistan via Baghdad. Mr Magnus said there were some 62,000 Iraqis in Sweden, making up 2% of the total population. Over the past five years, EU countries have turned down the applications of almost 5,500 Iraqi Kurds for asylum. Since the beginning of 2011 some 200 to 250 Kurdish asylum seekers, most of whom are from the Kurdistan Region - have been deported. The International Federation of Iraqi Refuges has criticized the position of the European countries, accusing them of double standards, saying it is too dangerous for their own citizens to visit many parts of Iraq whilst insisting that it is safe enough for refugees to return. The secretary of the group Amanj Abdullah told AKnews that some 60,000 Kurds were awaiting deportation. "If this deportation continues, some 50,000 to 60,000 refugees will be sent back to Iraq," he said, "...that represents an army of unemployed people that will create problems for both the regional and federal governments." Abdullah said the rights of the deportees are often violated. Aside from being sent back forcibly, they are usually handcuffed and accompanied by guards who have been reported to have subjected them to "beatings" and "insults". Mr Magnus insisted today however that "The Swedish government sends back Iraqis in a respectable manner via special airplanes and not forcefully as some imagine," he said A UK Border Agency spokesman said to the BBC in August 2010: "Currently we have an agreement with the government of Iraq to return all Iraqi citizens to Baghdad". The spokesman did not however disclose any details of the "deal" in question. The British Prime Minister David Cameron has repeatedly defended his country's decision to send asylum seekers back to Iraq. "It is important to remember that one of the reasons that our brave servicemen and women fought and died in Iraq was to try and make that a more stable country and a country that people who had fled it would be able to return to," Cameron said in June last year amid mounting pressure from the United Nations high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) not to repatriate Iraqi asylum seekers. "Iraq continues to suffer from the effects of this war and people should not be sent back there," said Dashty Jamal from the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees (IFIR). __________________ IRAQ.

July 21st, 2012, 06:24 PM	#9
sheytanElKebir stsirorret dedrater kcuf Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: nwot rorret ibahaw Posts: 8,170 Likes (Received): 326	what about the "rafha boys"? and rosengordiye? __________________ IRAQ.

July 21st, 2012, 08:06 PM	#11
sheytanElKebir stsirorret dedrater kcuf Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: nwot rorret ibahaw Posts: 8,170 Likes (Received): 326	the southern iraqi refugees from rafha camp who went to sweden after 1991... they are mostly in rosengord/malmo and goteborg too AFAIK (when I visited in 1997 or so). __________________ IRAQ.

February 17th, 2011, 01:43 PM	#4
MrIraq BANNED Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Melbourne Posts: 218 Likes (Received): 0	look at the opposition of australia, they are the most anti iraqi arab muslim, people to exsist. They are saying that the funeral was a waste of money, and these people dont deserve it. just listen what he says at 0:49 to the iraqi guy "can u please **** off"

February 17th, 2011, 01:50 PM	#5
*BigDreamer* Dreams of Babylon Rising Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 7,066 Likes (Received): 267	guys, i have to disagree with your assessment. they are anti refugee, not anti Iraqi.. btw, the guy who said it was a waste of money apologized yesterday.

July 21st, 2012, 06:15 PM	#8
Ishtarporten Deshi Basara! Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: Al Diwaniya Posts: 1,442 Likes (Received): 51	Most hated people in Sweden are Assyrian, Kurds and Iranian because some of them are aggressive and unemployed!!

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