Australia returns boatpeople to RI

Australia returns boatpeople to RI

CANBERRA: The Australian navy has escorted a boatload of
suspected Kurdish asylum seekers who made it as far as a northern
Australian island back to Indonesia, where they are being held by
local police, the Australian government said on Sunday.

Following talks with Jakarta officials, Australian immigration
minister Amanda Vanstone said the boat was escorted to the edge
of Indonesian waters before making its own way to the Indonesian
island of Yamdena.

"They are safe, they are in Indonesia, the IOM (International
Organization for Migration) is there," Vanstone said on
television as quoted by Agence France-Presse.

"They are in the care of the local police," she said.

However, Indonesian National Police director for transnational
crimes, Brig. Gen. Aryanto Sutadi, told The Jakarta Post that the
Indonesian police had not received any information on the asylum
seekers.

"We have not been informed about this and these asylum seekers
have not been delivered to us and we are still trying to locate
them," he said on Sunday.

He also said that no country should waive its responsibility
to deal with asylum seekers, placing the burden on other
countries. -- Agencies