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Found this on the local news website.This will be a major PITA for the Howard government.
"Go home you naughty diplomats"
"No it's not safe ,there's a war on you know"
"But you're in the Army"
"That's how we know it's not safe"
"But we're winning"
"We're in the Army.If we were winning we would know"
And so on and so forth
Hilarious
3 Iraqi diplomats seek asylum in Australia
The Associated Press
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
CANBERRA, Australia Three Iraqi diplomats and their families are seeking asylum in Australia after their government ordered them back to their embattled country, the government said Thursday.
The three lost their diplomatic accreditation after Iraq closed the office of the military attache within the Iraqi embassy in the national capital Canberra on Dec. 15, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, or DFAT, said in a statement.
They are former chief defense attache Brig. Gen. Sabah Al-Kareen Zebon Fureje and his staffers Kamal J. Askander and Ala' Al-Amiri, The Australian national newspaper reported. DFAT declined to confirm their names, citing privacy laws.
"We understand that these officials and their dependents have applied through normal channels for visas to remain in Australia," the statement said.
"Their applications will be processed by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship on their individual merits and in accordance with Australian law," it added. DFAT can consider rare applications for political asylum.
The Immigration Department declined to comment, citing privacy laws.
Neither department would say whether the families had been placed in immigration detention while their applications are assessed.
The Iraq embassy refused to make any official comment.
But an embassy official said he did not know where the three former diplomats now were.
He said military attaches were being closed at Iraqi embassies around the world "because of Defense Department financial concerns."
The embassy was closed in 2003 when the former ambassador was expelled on the eve of Australia sending 2,000 troops to support the U.S. and British militaries in the Iraq invasion. The embassy reopened in 2004.
The asylum claims are a potential political test for Prime Minister John Howard who maintains that democracy can survive in Iraq despite the current violence.
Almost all Iraqi asylum claims were accepted by Australia when former dictator Saddam Hussein was in power.
DFAT places Iraq in its most dangerous category of travel destinations and advises Australian travelers not to go there.
"We strongly advise you not to travel to Iraq because of the extremely dangerous security situation and very high threat of terrorist attack," DFAT's Web site says in its latest travel advisory.
Australia granted Chinese diplomat Chen Yonglin asylum in June 2005, a month after he abandoned his Sydney post despite protests from Beijing that he did not face persecution.
"Go home you naughty diplomats"
"No it's not safe ,there's a war on you know"
"But you're in the Army"
"That's how we know it's not safe"
"But we're winning"
"We're in the Army.If we were winning we would know"
And so on and so forth
Hilarious
3 Iraqi diplomats seek asylum in Australia
The Associated Press
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
CANBERRA, Australia Three Iraqi diplomats and their families are seeking asylum in Australia after their government ordered them back to their embattled country, the government said Thursday.
The three lost their diplomatic accreditation after Iraq closed the office of the military attache within the Iraqi embassy in the national capital Canberra on Dec. 15, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, or DFAT, said in a statement.
They are former chief defense attache Brig. Gen. Sabah Al-Kareen Zebon Fureje and his staffers Kamal J. Askander and Ala' Al-Amiri, The Australian national newspaper reported. DFAT declined to confirm their names, citing privacy laws.
"We understand that these officials and their dependents have applied through normal channels for visas to remain in Australia," the statement said.
"Their applications will be processed by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship on their individual merits and in accordance with Australian law," it added. DFAT can consider rare applications for political asylum.
The Immigration Department declined to comment, citing privacy laws.
Neither department would say whether the families had been placed in immigration detention while their applications are assessed.
The Iraq embassy refused to make any official comment.
But an embassy official said he did not know where the three former diplomats now were.
He said military attaches were being closed at Iraqi embassies around the world "because of Defense Department financial concerns."
The embassy was closed in 2003 when the former ambassador was expelled on the eve of Australia sending 2,000 troops to support the U.S. and British militaries in the Iraq invasion. The embassy reopened in 2004.
The asylum claims are a potential political test for Prime Minister John Howard who maintains that democracy can survive in Iraq despite the current violence.
Almost all Iraqi asylum claims were accepted by Australia when former dictator Saddam Hussein was in power.
DFAT places Iraq in its most dangerous category of travel destinations and advises Australian travelers not to go there.
"We strongly advise you not to travel to Iraq because of the extremely dangerous security situation and very high threat of terrorist attack," DFAT's Web site says in its latest travel advisory.
Australia granted Chinese diplomat Chen Yonglin asylum in June 2005, a month after he abandoned his Sydney post despite protests from Beijing that he did not face persecution.
) but they will be similar. After all, Blair was actually deporting Iraqis back to Kurdistan in the run up to the invasion.
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