Asylum seekers sent to detention centre

The 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers on board an Australian customs vessel will be taken
straight to an Australia-funded detention centre on the Indonesian island of Bintan,
officials say.
The Oceanic Viking, which rescued the asylum seekers from their stricken boat inside
Indonesia's search and rescue zone on Sunday, had been expected to dock in the
western Java port city of Merak on Thursday night.
But Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said the plan had changed.
"(It will go) not to Merak, but to Tanjung Pinang," he told AAP.
It will take the ship several extra days to reach Tanjung Pinang, the main town on
Bintan, north of Sumatra.
The diversion was ordered even though Indonesia justified its decision to let the
vessel dock on the "humanitarian" grounds that it was concerned about a sick child
on board.
Indonesia Navy Colonel Hutabarat said it was better for the asylum seekers to spend
extra days at sea to reach Tanjung Pinang, where they would be processed more
quickly.
"But the situation is dynamic," he cautioned.
"What's said today about their destination, could be different tomorrow."
The new Tanjung Pinang detention centre, paid for by Australian taxpayers, opened
its doors earlier this year and is capable of housing 600 people.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has played down reports that the 78 asylum
seekers had to be rescued because they deliberately sabotaged their own boat.
"I'm not leaping to conclusions, I'm not making any judgment and I don't think other
people should," he told ABC Radio on Thursday.
Meanwhile, more than 250 Sri Lankan asylum seekers caught by the Indonesian navy en
route to Australia a week and a half ago are still refusing to leave their boat.
The Tamils, who are moored at a navy port in Merak, want to meet with a UNHCR
representative before they agree to come ashore and have their refugee claims
assessed in Indonesia.