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.