Indonesia has denied it is planning to force ashore 240 Sri Lankan asylum seekers who have spent the past three months holed up on their boat in a Javan port.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah has disputed reports Indonesia's planning to force them into immigration detention by the end of next week.
He says there has been no decision to abandon the persuasion approach in favour of force.
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"We are focusing on how to get them to leave the boat with persuasion," he told AAP.
But Faizasyah confirmed the government was concerned about the possibility that some of the asylum seekers are Tamil Tigers.
"That's a possibility, because you know never the composition of the boat people, of illegal migrants."
Conditions aboard the boat have worsened in recent weeks because it has been lashed by strong monsoonal wind and rain.
'We won't fight back'
The Tamils, who have spent the past three months refusing to leave their boat say they will not fight back if Indonesian authorities try to force them into immigration detention.
But the group's spokesman, Sanjeev "Alex" Kuhendrarajah, has pleaded with Indonesia for continued patience.
"There are a lot of countries trying to find a peaceful resolution to this problem, and right now patience is a virtue," Alex told AAP.
"But we will not resist, we will not be violent in any way.
"We are very peaceful citizens and we will show that."
The Tamils, intercepted by the Indonesian navy en route to Australia and taken to the Javan port of Merak in October, do not want to come ashore because they fear they will be forced to wait years for resettlement.
They want instead to be given a rapid resettlement deal like that given to the 78 Sri Lankans who spent a month aboard Australia's Oceanic Viking vessel.
