A boatful of Sri Lankan asylum seekers that were bound for Australia are being kept at sea off Indonesia as authorities "check their status".
At least thirty-five people, including 17 women and five children, remain on board the boat that was intercepted on Saturday and are now about 300 metres from Aceh - a semi-autonomous Indonesian province on the northwest tip of Sumatra Island.
"We can't let them get on shore yet because we have to check their status first. Meanwhile, we're providing them food and water," Immigration Office spokesman Heru Santoso Ananta Yudha told AAP.
He said the Sri Lankans were heading to Australia. Indonesian authorities are yet to coordinate the effort with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
As to what Indonesia's next move will be, he said it was too early to say.
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"It hasn't been decided. Let's wait the checking result from the team."
It comes after a crisis in May last year saw boats carrying 1800 trafficked women, men and children land in Aceh, Indonesia, and hundreds or maybe thousands more die at sea.
There are currently more than 13,000 refugees and asylum-seekers registered with the UNHCR in the archipelago and detention centres in Indonesia are at over-capacity.
Since 2012 tens of thousands of Rohingya and Bangladeshis had left on smugglers' boats to reach Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, according to the UN.
In Indonesia alone the number of Afghanistan asylum seekers awaiting a solution has increased from some 1300 in 2010 to more than 6000 in 2015.
While the Australian government says it has "stopped the boats", earlier this year UNHCR Asia Pacific spokeswoman Vivian Tan criticised Australia's approach in the region saying people were still feeling conflict and persecution but they now have fewer options in the region.
Ms Tan said it was important for Australia to contribute to a genuine regional solution that was "equitable" to help ease the pressure of these movements in the region.
