FAX: 1300 STRAIT (1300 787 248)
PHONE: 1300 TORRES (1300 867 737)
TORRES NEWS
News & events of the Kaurareg homeland of Kaiwalagal, the Torres Strait homeland, and Cape York homelands of the Anggamuthi, Atambaya, Wuthathi, Yadhaykenu and Gudang Peoples
22 - 28 September, 2014 • Thursday Island • www.torresnews.com.au • editor@torresnews.com.au • Edition No.1134 • $2.00 inc. GST
Festival spectacular
Still going steady steady...
EIGHTY-FIVE laps of the sun, nine albums and two ARIA awards under his belt, Uncle Seaman Dan, Torres Strait’s original crooner and music icon, is still going strong. He kicked off the battle of the bands on Thursday Island, Saturday on September 13, launching his new album, Caribbean Songbook. More on page 13 >>
The colourful parade for the Winds of Zenadth Cultural Festival. More photos, Pages 10, 12, 13, 24. >>
International persons of mystery slip in through Torres Strait ‘back door’ BY AARON SMITH THREE persons attempted to enter Australia last week arriving on Saibai Island. They were of Pakistani and Somalian descent, but sources of the Torres News said that they were “not asylum seekers but something a little different”. An attempt to contact the Department of Immigration on Monday, September 15 was met with Minister Scott Morrison’s usual stonewall.
The following day NITV’s 5:30 bulletin reported “three boat people” had arrived on Saibai. The following day, on September 17, a spokesperson for Minister Morrison told a different news agency: “There was an unsuccessful venture and the three persons involved have been returned to Papua New Guinea in accordance with our Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of Papua New Guinea.” Apart from the fact Torres News
appears to be off Mr Morrison’s Christmas card list, and contrary to reliable sources on the ground that confirmed these ‘international persons of mystery’ actually did arrive on Saibai Island, the Minister’s vague response could be construed in many ways and open to conjecture. Were they transported off Australian territory without due process? If they are not asylum seekers, as sources to the Torres News suggest but would reveal no more, are
they in fact: Mr Morrison’s mysterious gang syndicates in PNG? Are they Somali pirates? Or Perhaps or even a Pakistani sect of the Hells Angels (as the the Minister previously said bikie gangs are apparently in cahoots with African gangs smuggling drugs and guns into the region.) Perhaps these ‘boat people’ were more akin to Miami Vice style speed-boat bad guys the Minister has warned us about, and perhaps the “unsuccessful venture” his of-
Tight-lipped Immigration Minister Scott Morrison. fice refers to was an unsuccessful criminal capital venture. Unfortunately when the Minister is so tight-lipped we can only use our imaginations.