Fact finding missions by Australian MPs and Senators to Sri Lanka and other war impacted societies are very important as they can assist Australia to develop evidence based policies and targeted development assistance programs that help achieve better social, economic and political outcomes. Such visits also remind the host governments that the international community is actively monitoring the situation on the ground and is expecting big improvements across the board.

It is great to see that Sri Lanka is emerging from the darkness of war and is investing its scarce resources into nation building projects that will improve the lives of all citizens. Australia can assist the rapid transformation of Sri Lanka by sharing its systems, policies and experiences with democracy in a multicultural context.

The Hon Julie Bishop and her team are to be congratulated for their initiative.

I certainly hope that Sri Lanka can fully emerge from the dark days of its civil war and that the nation can live in peace and harmony. However, as one anecdotal account of the problems that still lie ahead, I have been helping to try and get a ban lifted on an Australian citizen who was in Sri Lanka as an aid worker and would like to return to help in reconstruction. She is accused of harbouring a wanted terrorist. This man in fact was an elderly Australian citizen of Tamil origin who was visiting Sri Lanka on business and was staying overnight in the home of the aid worker and her husband as a house guest. He gave himself up voluntarily to the authorities and was eventaully allowed to return to Australia where he has since died. No action was taken against the aid worker or her husband at the time but when they tried to re-enter Sri Lanka after returning to Australia on holiday, they were barred at the airport. That was almost a decade ago and the ban remains in place.

As Ms Bishop says, there is an urgent need for trust to be rebuilt and for cases like this to be reviewed.

Julie Bishop is lying, the Tamil MP she talked to has told us she lied and our own DIAC stats show she lies.

80% of tamils arriving here last year were granted protection from prosecution and persecution so it is not safe or free.

Now perhaps this idiot woman can visit the 59 other countries from where asylum seekers arrive and tell us all about it.

The tamils are not refugees because of the war, they are refugees because they are still being disappeared, hunted down, raped and killed.

Bishop is nothing but a menace.

And the ambassador here is the former head of navy who has been named as a war criminal.

Marilyn is delusional, again.

Says Marilyn: << 80% of tamils arriving here last year were granted protection from prosecution and persecution so it is not safe or free.>>

No.It means the other 20% didn’t learn their lines well enough. But rest assured in their second, third, fourth or fifth attempt --many ‘unsuccessful” asylum scammers keep coming back till they get a positive answer-- they are more likely to succeed.

And here’s a news flash you would not hear from the ABC:
“More than 1,200 Sri Lankan nationals living in India as refugees have returned to their country in 2012 with monetary support from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Between January and December last year, a total of 1,260 Tamil refugees who were residing in special camps across Tamil Nadu had returned to their home country with the UN agency’s assistance, UNHCR said.

In 2011, more than 1,670 refugees returned to Sri Lanka as compared to 2,040 in the previous year in the aftermath of the end of the war in 2009.”
http://reliefweb.int/report/sri-lanka/over-1-200-refugees-returned-tn

So much for it being unsafe to return!

No SPQR, they were granted protection because they need our protection.

<< No SPQR, they were granted protection because they need our protection.>>

No Marilyn, if they had genuinely been seeking “protection” they could have obtained that in Tamil Nadu along with thousands of their compatriots.

The essential ingredient that was lacking in Tamil Nadu wasn’t protection -- but access to generous welfare and free education (with special reserved places for "refugees") and a ticket to got straight to the front of the housing commission queue.

There is no reason at all why any Sri Lankans have any right to be in India where they are not protected under the refugee convention.

Will you stop your boring racist attacks on innocent people?

<<There is no reason at all why any Sri Lankans have any right to be in India where they are not protected under the refugee convention.>>

Yet THOUSANDS did go to India-and they did get “protection”.

While the crafty ones –those after something else –came to OZ.

Wake up Marilyn, you are aiding and abetting one of the biggest baddest scams around.

Wow, Marilyn Shepard's "chased down, raped and killed" claim seems to indicate she knows much more than Amnesty International, United Nations Refugee Agency and Human Rights Watch who would only say the army has heavily militarized the north, restricted access to certain lands and not allowed the tamils to have their own government. None of them would say anything about a major chase down rape and kill process going on in the North. Do tell us your sources, oh enlightened one? Tamilnet (the Tamil source) doesn't say anything about people constantly being chased down, raped and killed either.

And how racist of you Shepard, the TAMILS of TAMIL NADU in India can't protect the TAMILS in Sri Lanka (who share the same culture and language) only WHITES can (like you and your socialist aussies). Soo patronizing..

@SPQR

Do you think the only assessment the Australian Government does to grant an asylum seeker protection is based on verbal questioning? As a minimum, you don't think there will be perhaps medical checks and psychologists/psychiatrists to verify claims? Most Australians are the fairest people on earth and this country wouldn't be as great as it is if the analytics didn't progress past a basic first level.

Also @SPQR, do you really think India had "protected" the thousands of Sri Lankan Tamils that have crossed the Palk Strait sometime during the war? Wait..first of all, what is your definition of "protection"? Being in a refugee camp as a permanent resident is unfortunately not "protection" in most people's eyes. Some asylum seekers have been languishing in these camps since they first stepped foot in India (more than 10 years ago). Any isolation from the war could be seen as "protection", but if asylum is not granted then there is no future for these people.

After hearing that the war has ended, enticed by UN monetary assistance (as you claim) to start their lives over and when these people have had "nothing" for years, then there is only one alternative option and that is to head back to their lands (because they would have no homes) in Northern and Eastern Sri-Lanka. I'm sure however, many would remain in India if asylum was granted by the Indian government.

We also don't know whether these thousands are voluntarily heading back to their lands. After all India did aid and abet the war on the Tamils in Sri Lanka.

It would be hard to believe that these Tamil people have open access to all forms of news like you and I to establish whether it is safe to go back home? They probably only know the basic news and the news the Indian government want them to hear - the news the Sri Lankan government wants the world to hear.

@CaptainPrimo

First of all..please don't place the names of independent world organizations and movements that work tirelessly to uphold the rights of people all over the world in incorrect statements. If you actually did a simple "google" with the correct key words you'll have all the information you need to retract your misinformed claims. Even Hilary Clinton in her speech when she chaired the UN Security Council meeting on September 30, 2009, mentioned that rape in Sri Lanka "as a tactic of war".

I think Marylyn in her own words was just stating that rape of Tamil women in the North and East of Sri Lanka is widespread. What do you expect when the North and East of Sri Lanka is heavily militarized? I'm sure you're aware of this, but in 2007 the UN sent home about 100 Sri Lankan Peacekeepers for sexual abuse (including that of under-age children) during their Peacekeeping efforts in Haiti. If a certain percent of Sri Lankan troops do things like this in a foreign country under the watch of the UN, imagine what a certain percentage of the Sri Lankan military are doing in Sri Lanka.

Also, how strong is your understanding of Indian politics? Do you think that Tamil Nadu has such an influence over the Indian Central Government that it is able to convince the ICG to change national laws to protect the Sri Lankan Tamils seeking asylum? I'm sorry to say that even this topic is not a priority to most Tamil Nadu citizens, so how can one expect national laws to change to protect the Sri Lankan Tamils.

India can't even look after it's own citizens, how do you expect her to help Sri Lankan Tamils? Again India was aiding and abetting the war on Sri Lankan Tamils, so again why would they help?