Indonesian officials have refused to allow an Australian ship carrying 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers, including women and children, to dock on Bintan Island. The ethnic Tamils were picked up by an Australian Customs Service patrol ship found more than a week ago after they were discovered drifting in a wooden boat with a broken engine.
After talks between Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, a presidential spokesman said last week that the Sri Lankans would be given temporary accommodation in Indonesia.
However, the refugees were not granted approval to disembark on Bintan island, according to I Gde Widiarta, a law and human rights official in Riau Kepulauan province. The island is about 1,000 kilometres north of Jakarta and across the Singapore Strait from Singapore.
Teuku Faizasyah, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, said talks were underway between Jakarta and local government officials.
“We are trying to convince [them] that our aim to help the 78 asylum seekers is merely based on humanitarian grounds,” Faizasyah said.
The Sri Lankans are the latest in a flood of thousands of people from war-torn countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq seeking better futures around the world.
On Oct. 17, 76 Sri Lankan Tamil migrants were found on the Ocean Lady off the coast of Vancouver Island. Authorities are investigating whether they were part of a massive, international people-smuggling operation run by an Indonesian ship captain.
Abraham Lauhenapessy, known as Captain Bram, was recently arrested aboard a boat carrying 255 Sri Lankan asylum seekers off the coast of western Java.
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