Refugee seeks passport for cat
posted by Happy Paws on Monday 31 May 2004.
Sydney - The last of the asylum seekers sent to Papua New Guinea's Manus Island, as part of Australia's so-called Pacific solution to stem illegal immigration, arrived in Australia on Monday with a passport to a new life as a refugee.
Kuwaiti-born Palestinian Aladdin Sisalem, 25, who landed by boat on the island of Saiba, north of Australia, seeking asylum on December 21, 2002, was sent to Manus where, for the last nine months, he has been the sole detainee at huge cost to the public coffers.
But the young car mechanic was granted a humanitarian visa last week after months of legal wrangling by Melbourne lawyer and refugee activist Eric Vadarlis.
On a stopover in the Papua New Guinean capital of Port Moresby on his way to Melbourne via Cairns, Sisalem thanked Australians who had supported him.
"I don't know how to thank all of the people in Australia who helped me," he told ABC television.
"I don't have enough words to thank them, but I hope I can do something with my life, good for me and good for Australia".
Sisalem befriended a stray cat called Honey during his stay on Manus and is attempting to get the cat to Australia with him.
However, it was not allowed to board a flight on Sunday from Manus Island to Port Moresby and refugee groups are trying to find a way of bringing Honey safely to Australia to live with him.
Vadarlis said Sisalem had received a thousand offers of accommodation from sympathisers in Melbourne where there is huge support for him.
"He's a motor mechanic, so that's what he wants to work in and I think he'll have no trouble finding a job", Vadalis added.
"He's a very eager man and he wants to get on with it".
"I think he'll hit the job trail as soon as he can, as soon as he wakes up from a long sleep".
The Labour opposition meanwhile said the government was throwing away money on its Pacific solution, by keeping detention camps on Manus, that could be better used on health services.
Opposition immigration spokesperson Stephen Smith said the Immigration Department had confirmed it was costing A$250 000 a month to keep open the Manus detention centre, for one detainee for the last nine months.