Australian ship takes boat people on board

Australian ship takes boat people on board

CHRISTMAS ISLAND, Australia (Reuters): An Australian navy troop carrier transferred 433 unwanted asylum seekers from a Norwegian freighter on Monday, prior to ferrying them to Papua New Guinea -- the next stage of their odyssey.

But the completion of the transfer, off Australia's Christmas Island, did not mean that the asylum crisis was over.

The Federal Court, sitting in Melbourne, still has to rule in a case that may yet force the government of Prime Minister John Howard to accept the mostly Afghan boat people it has so far steadfastly refused to allow onto Australian soil.

"All the refugees are off the boat," Hans Christian Bangsmoen, spokesman for the freighter's owners Wallenius Wilhelmsen, told Reuters in Oslo. He said there were no reports of injuries during disembarkation.

He said Australian authorities would check the vessel for any stowaways and complete other formalities. The Norwegian Foreign Ministry said there were 34 Australian soldiers aboard the ship.

From Papua New Guinea, the asylum seekers will be flown to New Zealand or the tiny Pacific island of Nauru, who have agreed to take them while their asylum requests are processed.

It was not clear when the HMAS Manoora, the troop carrier, would leave for Papua New Guinea, a voyage lasting about a week. A team of translators would board the Manoora on Tuesday morning, Australian Associated Press reported.

The transfer from the Norwegian freighter Tampa took place in Flying Fish Cove, about one nautical mile off the island's northern coast. The refugees were moved in groups of about 30, wearing new red lifejackets.

The Manoora was further out to sea and obscured by the much larger Tampa, which was acting as a windbreak while the Australian troops ferried the refugees between the ships on high- speed Zodiac inflatable boats as southwesterly winds gusted up to 20 knots and created choppy seas.

Prime Minister Howard said earlier that the Manoora would sail for the Papua New Guinea capital of Port Moresby later on Monday, as soon as the transfer was complete.

Stranded

The asylum seekers, plucked by the Tampa from a sinking Indonesian ferry on Aug. 26, have been stranded off Christmas Island for eight days.

A court agreement between Australia and civil liberties lawyers stipulates that the boat people cannot be forced to leave the Manoora until the court decides whether Australia's rejection of the asylum seekers was lawful.

Under the Federal Court agreement, the government also said it would bring the boat people back to Australia if it loses the case and the Federal Court in Melbourne orders their return.

But with the government expected to lodge immediate appeals if it loses the case, the immediate fate of the asylum seekers and their final destination remains uncertain.

Federal Court judge Tony North said he hoped to make his ruling before the Manoora reached Port Moresby in six to 10 days. The case was adjourned until 10:15 a.m. (7:15 a.m. in Jakarta) on Tuesday, with a ruling not expected until Wednesday.

Australia has steadfastly refused to accept the asylum seekers, saying they were Indonesia's responsibility because they had sailed from there. Jakarta has also refused to take them.

On Sunday, Australia announced a South Pacific solution with Nauru agreeing to take 283 and New Zealand 150. Australia will bear the cost of Nauru processing the boat people.

Australian officials have arrived in Nauru, a 21-sq-km island with some 12,000 people, to prepare for the asylum seekers who are expected to be housed in tents.

Nauru said it could take three months to process the boat people's refugee claims. Legitimate refugees can then apply for settlement in another country, including Australia. New Zealand will house their intake in an Auckland refugee center.

Hundreds of thousands of Afghans have fled conflict and the purist Islamic rule of Afghanistan's Taliban. Many live in crowded refugee camps in Pakistan, where they wait for refugee applications to be processed.

The asylum seekers have lived in cramped conditions with makeshift facilities on board the Tampa. The Manoora, an amphibious transport ship, is designed to carry 450 troops, 180 crew, vehicles, landing craft and four Black Hawk helicopters over long distances.

Internationally, Australia has been widely criticized for not accepting the asylum seekers and for using troops to seize control of the Tampa once it entered territorial waters around Christmas Island, 340 km south of Indonesia and 1,500 km northwest of the Australian mainland.

Australia has rejected accusations that it was treating the asylum seekers inhumanely. "The solution we have worked out is fair and humane," Howard told Sydney radio 2UE.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the plan to ship the asylum seekers to New Zealand and Nauru was acceptable.

The stand-off in the Indian Ocean has already cost an estimated A$20 million (US$10.6 million), more than it would have cost to detain the boat people for more than a year.

New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said on Monday that the refugee crisis off Australia's Christmas Island might cause ships to ignore vessels in distress in future.

"That is the worry -- that if they cannot discharge their human cargo somewhere then sea captains might turn a blind eye to boats in distress in the future," Clark told reporters after her weekly cabinet meeting.