Danger for Falun Gong practitioners in Australia
3 November 2008, 10:25AM
The lack of freedoms in China have a real link to Australia in the form of Falun Gong practitioners seeking asylum here. If refused refugee status here, the individual usually has to visit the Chinese Embassy in order to obtain or renew their Chinese passport in anticipation of their return. A fraught process...
If a Chinese national goes to the Chinese Embassy here in Australia to renew their passport or obtain a new one; questions will no doubt follow... Why did the document lapse? Why did the person not come forth sooner? What sort of visa has the person been living on in Australia? What sort of applications did the person make? Why?
It is possible, that if the person has been refused a protection visa here in Australia they will have no choice but to return to China, yet they have just identified themselves to Chinese officials as being a Falun Gong practitioner. This raises the issue of sur place claim, as outlined in this Sydney Morning Herald article - whereby a person now faces a new threat of human rights abuse. The plight of a known Falun Gong practitioner returning to China is not secure. The Chinese Government considers Falun Gong to be a cult, we know that individuals are imprisoned for practicing and for possessing materials about the practice.
The Chinese Government does not take a positive view of its citizens applying for asylum anywhere in the world.
A complex situation where in the case cited by the SMH, an individual is trapped between two systems - one refusing her protection, the other with a potential to abuse her human rights because of the first fact.
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