Irish backpacker charged over refugee camp escape

An Irish backpacker has been charged with assisting two young Afghan boys to escape from a controversial Australian outback refugee camp.

The two escapees, 14-year-old Alamdar Baktiari and his 12-year-old brother, Muntazer, were yesterday refused asylum at the British consulate in Melbourne.

Australian authorities have insisted the boys are not genuine refugees and less than seven hours after they applied for asylum, the UK yesterday rejected their claims.

The boys, who claim to be Afghan refugees, were taken from the consulate to Melbourne’s Maribyrnong detention centre where their father, Mr Ali Baktiari, later tried to visit them.

But before he arrived, immigration officials had taken the boys on a chartered flight back to the Woomera refugee centre, 1,000 kilometres (about 600 miles) from Melbourne, where their mother and her three other children are also in detention.

Controversy over the remote camp has been generated by the conditions in which the refugees are held there.

The Australian government believes the same group that helped the boys flee Woomera in a mass breakout in late June took them to the British consulate, where sympathetic lawyers became involved in their case.

Australian Prime Minister Mr John Howard said political activists were using the boys to try to destroy the government’s tough immigration policies, but stressed that there would be no backing down.

‘‘We are in the process of maintaining the integrity of our border protection system and people are trying to break it,’’ he said.

‘‘There are people in Australia who are political activists, as well as lawyers, and they’re trying to break it.

‘‘We’re not going to have it broken. We’ll defend it in a humane, compassionate fashion, but people should understand we do not intend to alter our policy.’’

Later, Jonathon Joseph O’Shea, from Co Cork, was charged in connection to the escape at the controversial Woomera detention centre.

The 22-year-old graphic artist has been travelling in Australia on a one-year working visa. He was accused of aiding and abetting the escape of the two boys three weeks ago

O’Shea is understood to have been touring Australia in a camper van and will be back in court next week.