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