Sri Lankan migrants to leave Australian ship off Indonesia
Jakarta -
A group of Sri Lankan asylum seekers were to leave an Australian customs ship moored off Indonesia's Bintan island Wednesday after a three-week standoff, the Indonesian Foreign Ministry said. The 56 migrants are the remainder of a group of 78 Sri Lankans who were picked up by the Australian ship Oceanic Viking in international waters one month ago while on their way to Australia, claiming persecution in their homeland.
They were taken to port off Bintan but they refused to disembark, demanding they be sent to Australia.
Last week, 22 migrants agreed to go ashore and enter an Australian-funded refugee centre in Tanjung Pinang on Bintan, after being promised speedy processing for their refugee claims by the UN refugee agency UNHCR, but the others remained adamant in their refusal.
Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said the 56 Sri Lankans had now agreed to leave the ship.
"A team from related departments have met them and will send them to the detention centre in Tanjung Pinang," Faizasyah said.
"They would be detained for one month after their claims are processed by the UNHCR before they could be sent to a third country willing [to take them in], possibly Australia," he said.
He said the verification process would take a week.
Australia has seen a fresh influx of undocumented migrants from conflict-hit countries such as Afghanistan and Sri Lanka this year.
Most Australia-bound asylum seekers arrive on small boats from Indonesia, where they have paid smugglers to arrange their passage.
