Twenty-one Vietnamese asylum seekers returned

Ben Doherty/The Guardian

Twenty-one Vietnamese asylum seekers have been intercepted approaching Australia by boat, processed at sea, and returned to Vietnam.

Asylum seekers who arrived by boat escorted by Australian navy patrol boat at Christmas Island in August 2012. Asylum seekers who were intercepted at sea have been returned to Vietnam by Australian authorities. (Photo: Scott Fisher/EPA)

The boat, intercepted by the navy earlier this month in the Timor Sea, is the third from Vietnam to be intercepted by Australian authorities in the past 14 months. Asylum seekers previously forcibly returned to Vietnam have been jailed despite assurances from the Australian and Vietnamese governments that they would not be prosecuted, persecuted or punished for attempting to reach Australia.

At least eight people were jailed in Vietnam for organizing boat journeys and trying to reach Australia in 2015.

The immigration and border protection department has not commented on whether assurances were sought or received that people returned to Vietnam from the latest boat would not face persecution or prosecution.

The boat is the 28th known to have been turned back since the Coalition took office in 2013, and the first to arrive since the start of this election campaign.

Only two caveats exist for the turn-back of boats: the government insists boats are only turned back “where it is safe to do so”; and Australia must also ensure, under the non-refoulement obligations of international law, that it does not return anybody to a place where their “life or freedom would be threatened”.

To read more, click here: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/jun/22/vietnamese-asylum-seekers-turned-back-after-being-processed-at-sea