Aid agencies urge quick solution to asylum ship

Aid agencies urge quick solution to asylum ship

GENEVA (Reuters): Major aid agencies urged Australia, Indonesia and Norway on Tuesday to quickly resolve the dilemma of more than 400 mostly Afghan immigrants aboard a cargo ship stranded in the Indian Ocean.

The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said they were concerned genuine asylum-seekers fleeing persecution at home might be aboard the freighter.

Indonesia said on Tuesday it took no responsibility for the 438 asylum seekers, despite earlier having said it would accept them on humanitarian grounds.

The immigrants were on their way to Australia from Indonesia on Sunday when they were rescued from a sinking wooden ferry by the Norwegian-owned Tampa.

Australia has also refused entry to the vessel, now anchored in international waters off Australia's Christmas Island. Many of those aboard have started a hunger strike, and the freighter's captain has warned of increased tension and worsening health conditions.

A team of Australian doctors was helicoptered aboard the vessel on Tuesday following reports of illness.

Australian troops also landed on Christmas Island to help distribute humanitarian relief -- the first of a contingent of 120 personnel expected by the end of the week. A navy frigate was also on its way from the west Australian city of Perth.

"Quite a lot of gear has come on trucks from the airport and gone into a large sports hall," said a Reuters photographer at the scene.

Australia has spurned pleas by the increasingly desperate human cargo for permission to land in a warning to rising numbers of illegal immigrants attempting to get into the country -- many of whom use the Indonesian archipelago as a staging post.

But the move, ahead of a national election later this year, has raised accusations that the country is becoming a stubborn white fortress.

The freighter's captain Arne Rinnan said he believed the boat people's threat to jump off if the ship moved away from Christmas Island, 350 km (217 miles) south of Indonesia's Java and 1,500 km (931 miles) west of Australia.

"It is a tough situation, a difficult issue of international law. It is hard to pinpoint responsibility," UNHCR spokeswoman Millicent Mutuli told Reuters in Geneva.

"We would like to urge the three governments -- Australia, Indonesia and Norway -- to work out a solution as quickly as possible."

Mutuli welcomed Australia's offer to bring the migrants food and medical supplies -- an operation underway by Australian troops.

Niurka Pineiro, a spokeswoman for the Geneva-based IOM, said it would provide accommodation, food and medical services "should the Indonesian government agree to receive the group on humanitarian grounds".

According to IOM, many migrants buy "package tours" from smugglers in Pakistan and elsewhere. They travel via Malaysia, Thailand or Cambodia, then board rickety Indonesian fishing boats to get to Christmas Island, south of Java or to Ashmore Reef, south of Timor.

IOM says some 1,130 migrants, mainly from Afghanistan and Iraq, are spread throughout the archipelago awaiting determination of their status.