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Home , Christmas Island

set for asylum handover at sea

AUSTRALIAN  JULY 02, 2014 12:00AM Amanda Hodge

South Correspondent

HMAS Glenelg and the Ocean Protector in the sea off Island. Source: Supplied A BOATLOAD of Sri Lankan asylum-seekers found near Cocos Island at the weekend is being transported by Australian authorities to a treacherous mid-ocean transfer to a Sri Lankan naval vessel in the midst of the deadly south-west . A senior Sri Lankan navy official said a naval vessel departed yesterday following several days of talks with Australian authorities about how to handle the impending asylum-seeker arrivals — which would have been the first to reach Australian in six months. “What I know is that one of our ships has already sailed. We are making a rendezvous with an Australian vessel to take over the people,” the official told The Australian yesterday. “We do not know whether the boat they will be transferred from is an Australian civilian vessel, coast guard or navy, but this will be quite a mammoth task to transfer them because of the rough seas. The southwest monsoon has already started so it is going to be a bit of a task.” A Sri Lankan navy spokesman confirmed discussions were under way with Canberra, and that the asylum-seekers had been picked up by Australian authorities. “They will be handed over to the Sri Lankan navy,” he said. However he denied that a Sri Lankan vessel had already been dispatched. He said the handover did not involve the estimated 153 Sri Lankans, many of them from the minority Tamil community, who left the south Indian fishing port of Pondicherry on June 13. That boat was believed to have been 250km shy of last Friday when occupants reported they were running out of water and oil. There was speculation it had been intercepted by an Australian Customs vessel. Last night a spokesman for Immigration Minister Scott Morrison declined to either confirm or deny that a transfer operation was under way. “Responding to speculative claims is contrary to the policy and practice of Operation Sovereign Borders as described by the Joint Agency Task Force,” he said. The Sri Lankan navy’s confirmation of its involvement yesterday is the first indication that Australian authorities both knew of at least one vessel and have been negotiating for its return. It is not known how many asylum-seekers will be transferred to Sri Lankan custody from the boat found off Cocos island. Several mid-ocean transfers of asylum-seekers between Australian and Indonesian authorities have occurred in recent months. But the far more dangerous operation planned for late this week or early next week in the monsoonal will be only the second time such a handover has taken place in as many years. In July 2012, The Australian was on board the SLNS Samudura when it met a French supertanker, Euronav, for an ocean transfer of 28 Sri Lankans. The Euronav had been convinced by Australian authorities to rescue the asylum- seekers and divert to Sri Lankan waters to meet the Samudura.