Church leaders must do more to help 25 Catholic Tamil asylum seekers aboard a boat intercepted by Indonesian authorities at Australia’s request last October.

It is important that Church and government bodies around the world closely monitor the actions of the Sri Lankan Government to see why Tamils are fleeing their home country.

I have been speaking to various people aboard the boat, being held at the Javanese port of Merak, and have learnt that Catholics were aboard and had limited medical help.

For thousands of Tamils the outcome of the recent Sri Lankan elections would mean little since the one issue that really mattered was their rehabilitation after months in government-run camps.

The Church could help these and other asylum seekers in a variety of ways. To my knowledge, apart from a statement by the president of the Australian Bishops Conference, little else seems to have been offered in terms of leadership.

The Catholic Church can play a big role by publicising the government’s ethical and moral duties and calling for Australia to accept the refugees and not burden Indonesia.

Australia needed to be pressured to take its UN obligations seriously. The UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees obliges its signatories to ‘receive refugees in their territories and work in a true spirit of international cooperation in order that these refugees may find asylum and the possibility of resettlement’.

Instead of accepting the refugees when they were 140km away from Australia, the prime minister got Indonesia to intercept and take them to Indonesia which has not signed the refugee convention and will not resettle the refugees. The international community should work together to hold Sri Lanka accountable for continued persecution of Tamils. Trade and sporting sanctions should be imposed until the minority Tamil community can live in freedom and independent war crimes investigation is carried out.

Pancras Jordan OP