No Christmas For The Merak Refugees

25 of the refugees on board the wooden vessel in Merak harbour are Catholic Tamils. They have asked for a priest to help them celebrate Christmas day mass. Needless to say this request has been denied. So no Christmas for them and we doubt whether there will be much Xmas cheer on Christmas island this year either. Especially because the isolated nature of the Island means that everything has to be flown the 1,500 miles to the island and, as there are around 1,500 detainees, 300 detention centre staff and 300 Islanders, that's an awful lot of government-funded fuel!