Lankan asylum seeker stand-off enters second day

A large group of asylum seekers intercepted in Indonesian waters while on their way to New Zealand may ask to be resettled in Australia. The 85 Sri Lankans, who were caught by Indonesia’s maritime police on Saturday night, are still refusing to leave their boat, which is moored at the port of Tanjung Pinang in the Riau Islands off Sumatra.

 

The head of the Tanjung Pinang immigration office, Hasan Basri, said today the group had demanded to speak with officials from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), adding that they remained determined to be resettled in a third country.

 

“They still insist on staying on the ship and want to leave to a third country. If it’s not New Zealand, then Australia or Canada,” Basri said.

 

“It’s a difficult situation because we cannot force them to get off the ship, but we also cannot let them leave.”

 

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said today his country would not accept the group, adding that it would send the wrong message to people smugglers and other asylum seekers.

 

“Once you start taking people in the form of people smugglers, you are rewarding the bad guys. You are rewarding people who are putting others’ lives at risk,” he told New Zealand’s TV3.

 

“If you are going to take this boat, there are just thousands and thousands of other boats which will come.”

 

Mr Key said New Zealand took a humane approach to the refugee issue but it would not reward people who did not seek asylum through the “normal” channels.

 

“While they’re not anywhere near our waters, the message is a very clear one - we don’t want people coming to New Zealand in this form.

 

“Frankly, that’s the way it should be because there’s a very clear pathway, it’s fair to people, and that is you come through the normal channels as a refugee, otherwise you’re jumping the queue.”

 

The stand-off at Tanjung Pinang comes almost two years after a similar incident, which lasted six months, involving 255 Sri Lankan asylum seekers who were stopped while heading to Australia.

 

The Jaya Lestari 5 was intercepted on October 11, 2009, and taken to the Javan port of Merak after then Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd personally called Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

 

It is understood the group intercepted on Saturday night bought their vessel in Indonesia.

 

The International Organisation for Migration was assisting the group while authorities waited for UNHCR officials to arrive, the Herald Sun reports.