Indonesia to take asylum seekers

21 Oct 2009, 6:48 am   -   Source: AAP/SBS
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A boatload of asylum seekers rescued in international waters by Australian customs will be taken to Indonesia to have their refugee claims processed, following talks between Kevin Rudd and the Indonesian president.

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A boatload of asylum seekers rescued in international waters by an Australian customs vessel will be taken to Indonesia to have their refugee claims processed.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono agreed during a bilateral meeting in Jakarta that the 78 asylum seekers, believed to be Sri Lankans, should be taken to Indonesia for "humanitarian reasons".

"There's a sick child on board, and the president is quite concerned about the health of this sick child," Dr Yudhoyono's spokesman, Dino Patti Djalal, told reporters.

The asylum seekers would be taken to Merak, in western Java, where an earlier group of more than 250 Sri Lankan asylum seekers were already being accommodated, he said.

"The passengers on the (Australian) boat will be allowed to temporarily, and I underline the word temporarily, be accommodated in our territory," Dino said.

"Very, very, soon afterwards we will facilitate international officials to handle their case."

The Oceanic Viking picked up the asylum seekers, who were on board a boat in Indonesia's search and rescue zone which had been deemed unsafe, on Sunday.

Indonesia-Australia cooperation

The leaders also agreed to develop within weeks a "clear framework" on how to deal with future asylum seekers, Dino said. "So we don't deal with this on an ad hoc basis."

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said the the agreement was "a very good humanitarian result".

"It is a very good example of cooperation between Australia and Indonesia and it's a very good example of Australia quite correctly discharging its humanitarian and safety at sea obligations, and that's been a very important part of this process," he said.

Mr Rudd and Dr Yudhoyono also discussed terrorism and natural disaster responses.

Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Rudd had also discussed people smuggling with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.

In Australia, Malcolm Turnbull ratcheted up the rhetoric over asylum seekers when  - in echoes of John Howard - he thundered that Australia should decide "who comes to this country".

During a heated question time on Tuesday, Mr Turnbull led the charge against the Rudd government, accusing it of putting out the red carpet for asylum seekers by softening its border-protection policy.

Turnbull blasts border policy

But the argument fell flat as Julia Gillard, the acting prime minister, swatted away question after question on the issue, mocking the coalition for being disinterested in the facts about asylum-seeker arrivals.

Dr Yudhoyono was sworn in for a second five-year term at a ceremony in Jakarta on Tuesday morning, following his re-election in July.

During his speech, Dr Yudhoyono thanked Mr Rudd and other world leaders for attending the event.

"The attendance of international friends at the inauguration today is a symbol of goodwill and unmeasurable honour for Indonesia," Dr Yudhoyono said.

Dr Yudhoyono promised Indonesia would continue to be a free and democratic country, committed to justice and world peace.

"Indonesia will cooperate with anyone who has the same good intentions as us, especially to build a peaceful world order," he said.


 

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Your Comments

stay in indonesia

katie - from melbourne, 3 years ago

Im sorry but i dont want people living in our country that think that it is acceptable to stage hungerstrikes and threaten suicide as their way of getting into our country. whilst i understand why they fled sri lanka, and the tamils, surely indonesia is still a fantastic alternative? I dont want people who think they can get their way by manipulation, surely god makes us grateful for what we have.

Easy to pontificate, harder to survive

Lucinda Petroeschevsky Mayer - from Sydney, 3 years ago

It is interesting to note how a nations collective moralia goes down the tube in times of economic hardship, expansive and open minded in prosperity, yet restrictive on matters of cultural relativism in times of comparative hardship, and yet would you think the same, if you had to choose between crown and country, and life and death? Since when has culture been a terms of barter?

if Sri Lanka wasn't killing these Tamils, they wouldn't come here

Tamil - from Sydney, 3 years ago

#1: More than 80%(or 85-90%) of all "illegal immigrants" are people who have come by plane and overstayed their visa. So the actual number of people who arrive "illegally" are very few. Less than a 1000 year for most of the past 20 years. #2: Australia takes in a lot less, a small fraction of what other countries take in. #3: Aust signed the "UN refugee conventio..." ... Most Refugees end up working very hard, and do the low-paid jobs that most of us wouldn't want to do. Many others study well and get better jobs. Thus contributing to our economy, etc. BTW, I am a Tamil from Sri Lanka. I lived half my life in SL, and from my own experience and through relatives still living in SL, I know the suffering of Tamils. Many Tamil people are being arrested by the Sinhalese Police & Army and imprisoned for months/years. Young Tamil girls are sexually abused or raped. Many Tamils have been brutally tortured also. This has been happening for over 30 years. The war in SL is now over and there is no more 'Tamil Tigers' in SL. WHY??? is the UN and other countries like Australia still allowing Sinhala-Sri_Lanka to continue it's 'slow genocide' of Tamils?

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