Australia says boat people from RI

Australia says boat people from RI

AUSTRALIA: The 15 people who arrived by boat last week on the remote Ashmore Reef were Indonesians hoping to work illegally as fruit pickers, Australian Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said on Sunday.

The group of nine women and six men were found on Thursday on Ashmore Reef, an uninhabited set of sand bars 320 kilometers northwest of Western Australia.

The would-be migrant workers were being cared for by the navy and customs vessels crews off Ashmore Reef while arrangements were being made to return them to Indonesia, Vanstone said.

They had been dropped off at Ashmore by a boat that presumably had returned to Indonesia. -- DPA