Asylum seekers waiting off Indonesia

After eight days at sea, 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers aboard an Australian Customs
vessel may have to wait another night before being handed over to Indonesian
authorities.

The Customs vessel, the Oceanic Viking, was on Monday anchored 10 nautical miles off
Indonesia's Bintan Island, poised to offload the group.

However, a spokesman for Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor told AAP that
weather conditions meant it was unlikely the transfer would occur on Monday as
initially planned.

It is believed tidal conditions were preventing the Oceanic Viking from docking but
there may be a small window of opportunity that could see the vessel makes it way to
the island about 9pm AEDT.

The group, once taken to Bintan Island, will be detained at the Tanjung Pinang
immigration detention centre where people already housed there have complained of
brutality at the hands of Indonesian guards.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said Indonesian police had indicated the allegations
were being investigated.

"I've also seen ... suggestions that some detainees, some asylum seekers in the
Tanjung Pinang detention centre may have been badly treated," Mr Smith told
parliament on Monday.

"Australia would of course very much want that any asylum seeker held in detention
in Indonesia is treated appropriately.

"And if any allegations are made, if any serious allegations are made, then they
need to be investigated by the appropriate authorities and the Indonesian police
have indicated that is occurring."
Mr Smith also expressed concern about suggestions force could be used to remove the
group from the Oceanic Viking.

"We would want that to be done in a peaceful, peaceable, orderly and civilised way,
and at this stage I'm confident that can occur."
The group of 78 asylum seekers aboard the Oceanic Viking were rescued more than a
week ago by an Australian navy vessel in Indonesia's search and rescue zone.

Indonesia eventually agreed to take the group following a deal struck between
Canberra and Jakarta.

In parliament, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd refused to reveal details of the
negotiations that led to the deal.

"Diplomatic communications between one government and another, as is consistent with
conventions going back a long time, are a matter of confidentiality and shall remain
so," Mr Rudd said in response to a question from Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull.

Mr Rudd also refused to apologise for the decision to send the group back to
Indonesia, adding he would continue to seek assistance from the Indonesian
government in stopping more asylum seeker boats heading for Australia.

"The risks on the high seas are too great and the tragedy of disasters too high, and
the incentives for people too great not to attempt to reduce boats leaving from
Indonesia, or from other countries," he said.

"Our policy ... is unapologetically tough but humane. We will continue to implement
that policy into the future."
ACTU president Sharan Burrow, who met with other union leaders in Canberra on
Monday, criticised the so-called Indonesia solution, and raised concerns about
conditions at Tanjung Pinang and the approach taken by Indonesian authorities
towards immigration detention.

"We will not stand by and watch silently if children are detained and therefore
their families imprisoned and the risk of psychological damage that it entails," Ms
Burrow said.

"We would want to know that any regional solution, and of course it is a regional
and global problem ... live up to the principles we've established here."
The latest boat of asylum seekers to arrive in Australian waters - the 36th this
year - was expected to arrive at Christmas Island on Monday afternoon.