Asylum standoff: No end in sight

30 Oct 2009, 6:46 am   -   Source: AAP/SBS
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A stand-off between authorities and asylum seekers aboard the Oceanic Viking is continuing, with the Rudd government unable to say when the group will be offloaded.

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A stand-off between authorities and asylum seekers aboard the Oceanic Viking is continuing, with the Rudd government unable to say when the group will be offloaded.

As the Tamil asylum seekers, who have fled Sri Lanka, remained in limbo for another day, the Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Australia warned the group represented a security threat.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd yesterday said the Australian and Indonesian governments had great patience in dealing with the 78 Tamils, who are refusing to leave the vessel in Indonesia.

Mr Rudd has not ruled out using cash payments to entice them to disembark.

The ship, which is running out of food and drinking water, will be resupplied on Sunday.

The asylum seekers were rescued almost two weeks ago by an Australian navy vessel in Indonesia's search and rescue zone, before being transferred to the Oceanic Viking, an Australian Customs vessel, which remains anchored 10 nautical miles off Bintan Island.

"The foreign affairs minister of Indonesia said last night of Indonesia: 'Indonesia has great patience in handling this matter' - so does Australia," Mr Rudd told parliament.

Cash payment plan mooted

"That is the basis upon which the vessel's presence in the port will be considered in the future."

A spokesman for Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor said there was no time decided on the transfer of the asylum seekers to the Tanjung Pinang detention centre on Bintan.

"The Australian and Indonesian authorities are still working through the details of disembarkation," he said.

The opposition has raised the prospect of cash payments being made to entice the group off the Oceanic Viking, but Mr Rudd said such a move has never been considered.

"My advice is that is not the case," he said.

However, the prime minister did not rule out the option in the future.

Immigration Minister Chris Evans meanwhile hit back at opposition questions about the cost of rescuing the Tamils. 

Indonesian solution 'a failure'

"The alternative cost was the death of 78 people," he said in the Senate.

"You have to answer the questions, do you oppose the rescue at sea of those 78 individuals?"

Opposition immigration spokeswoman Sharman Stone maintains the so-called Indonesia solution is a failure.

"I think what we're going to see is boats from Sri Lanka simply skirting around Indonesia's territorial waters and its search and rescue zone.

"It never was a solution, it was always a blind prayer hoping Indonesia would take the problem off the hands of Australia."

The comments come amid a warning from the Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Australia, Senaka Walgampaya, that the Tamil asylum seekers represented a security threat.

Refugees 'a security threat'

"They pose a threat to peace and security of Australia," he told Sky News.

There are more than 250,000 people in camps in Sri Lanka as a result of a 20-year civil war that ended earlier this year.

Mr Walgampaya rejects claims Tamils in Sri Lanka are being persecuted.

But Alex, the spokesman for a group of 251 Tamil asylum seekers still moored at Merak in Indonesia after being intercepted by the Indonesian navy on their way to Australia, said the world does not know the truth about what is happening in Sri Lanka.

The group remains holed up on the rickety Jaya Lestari 5, and is also refusing to disembark in Indonesia.

"People in these camps are being murdered every single day, raped, children are going missing," he said.

"There is so much torture going on inside these camps, and I think the whole world should see this."

 

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Your Comments

Ruddy hell

Jessica - from The Gap , 3 years ago

Oh great so Australian taxpayers have to pay for their boat to stay anchored outside its patrol zone, being resupplied with food at greater cost, while our actual territorial waters go unpatrolled ...what a great government we have

Weak Government

Robbo - from ACT, 3 years ago

Time to send a decisive message to these people. Australia is not an easy target for boat people! Drag them off and process the blighters. How dare they make demands of us! When we are doing them a favour. What a joke!

GoHome

Di - from Cairns, 3 years ago

What is wrong with the Aus Gov; they are holding us to ransom.
Do we want these people in our country if this is how they get their own way?
Tank up, set sail for Sri Lanka without delay; how dare these people dictate to us; they are illegals.
If a group of Aussies did this we'd be given short shrift.
Rudd needs to show some Leadership and stop pussyfooting around; he seems to think that he can win over any situation with diplomacy or cash, but it's our money Mr Rudd.

How embarrassing

Bredan K - from Gosford, 3 years ago

It is a bit off I think. We rescue people and then they take over our boat to try and force it to take them somewhere. It is a border protection vessel not a water taxi. While it is stuck in limbo somewhere it is not on patrol, it is costing how many thousands of dollars and it shows that our country is weak as. What a weak indecisive government we have.

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