Naval blockade fails to stop asylum seekers
Naval blockade fails to stop asylum seekers
CANBERRA (Agencies): A naval blockade to fend off illegal immigrants failed on Thursday to turn away the latest Indonesian boat carrying asylum seekers to Australia.
A spokesman for Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock said the navy, on heightened alert in the Indian Ocean between Australia and Indonesia, had warned the Sumbar Bahagia carrying 129 mainly Iraqi asylum seekers to change its course.
"But the passengers became aggressive and, despite being warned off, insisted on coming in to Ashmore Island," the spokesman told Reuters, referring to an uninhabited Australian reef island about 860 km (534 miles) off the mainland.
"They will be kept on that boat until a decision is made what to do with them."
The Sumbar Bahagia is the fourth vessel in 18 days laden with boat people to be refused entry to Australia as the government cracks down on a rising flows of illegal immigrants.
Instead, Australia has struck a US$10 million deal with the tiny Pacific island of Nauru to take in most of the boat people, who pay criminals to smuggle them to Indonesia and then on to Australia.
Canberra says another 9,000 migrants are waiting in Indonesia and Malaysia for transport, prompting concerns that Nauru will not be able to cope. The poor Pacific nation of Kiribati was reported to have stepped up to the plate and has also offered to help.
Court
Australia's hardline stance began in late August when Canberra defied world outrage and rejected 433 mainly Afghan boat people rescued by the Norwegian freighter Tampa from a sinking Indonesian ferry. Indonesia also refused to accept them.
The Tampa's passengers were eventually put on board the navy troop carrier HMAS Manoora and, along with another 237 picked up later from an Indonesian fishing boat, are on route to Nauru.
On Tuesday the navy found a third vessel with about 130 people on board grounded near Ashmore Reef and was trying to make the boat seaworthy to push it back out into international waters.
Australia's crackdown on illegal immigrants has boosted the popularity of the conservative government, wiping out opposition Labor's lead ahead of a tough year-end election.
About 5,000 mainly Middle Eastern, Pakistani and Afghani boat people arrive in Australia each year, a small number internationally but a sharp rise on a few hundred five years ago.
But the crackdown was dealt a blow on Tuesday when a court ruled the government acted illegally in ordering troops on to the Tampa, keeping it marooned at sea for eight days while it searched for other countries to take its human cargo.
Federal Court Justice Tony North ruled on Tuesday that the 433 asylum seekers, rescued from a sinking Indonesian ferry by a Norwegian cargo ship on Aug. 26 off Australia's remote Christmas Island must be allowed into Australia by late Friday.
During Thursday's hearing, Chief Justice Michael Black described the case as urgent, and asked the government and civil rights lawyers representing the refugees to limit their submissions, with a view to ending the hearing Thursday.
If the government fails to overturn the original decision in the Federal Court, it could launch another appeal in the High Court.
Australian government on Thursday insisted it has the right to turn away asylum seekers.
Solicitor-General David Bennett told a full bench of the Federal Court in Melbourne that there was no doubt Australia had the executive power to repel people trying to sneak into the country, even if it involved reasonable force and detention.