PM out of loop on Tamil asylum seekers

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has admitted he does not know the status of 78 Sri Lankan
asylum seekers aboard an Australian customs vessel in Indonesian waters.
The ethnic Tamils, who are refusing to leave the Oceanic Viking, have reportedly
been living in Indonesia for years.
Citing written messages thrown off the ship, Fairfax newspapers reported group
members as saying they had been in Indonesia for up to five years, and had been
accepted by Jakarta's United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office
as genuine asylum seekers.
Mr Rudd said he knew nothing about the news.
"The UNHCR has got responsibility for processing the individuals on this particular
vessel," he told reporters in Canberra on Sunday.
"I am unaware of what the outcome of any ... initial processing or initial
discussions may be concerning their status - that is a matter for the UNHCR."
Asked if Australian officials had interviewed those aboard the boat, Mr Rudd said:
"I'm unaware of where all that is up to."
Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull was also remaining non-committal, refusing to be
drawn on whether a future coalition government would adopt previous prime minister
John Howard's tough stance on asylum seekers.
"When we come into government, after the next election, presumably a year from now,
we will examine all of the options, including the policies that we had in place at
the last election," he told Network Ten.
He did say, however, that if the latest news on the Sri Lankans was true, it
contradicted the government's statements that push factors - such as war - were
behind the recent increase in people seeking asylum in Australia.
"If these people had left Sri Lanka five years ago to Indonesia then that completely
demolishes Kevin Rudd's argument that his changes to our domestic policies ... have
had no influence on this surge," he said.
Family First senator Steve Fielding said it was clear Labor's border protection
policies were responsible for the influx.
"People smugglers are using these laws to send more people our way," he told Network
Ten.
"That is a huge concern. Something needs to be done."
The group was meant to be offloaded from the Oceanic Viking under a deal struck
between Mr Rudd and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, but they have not
budged for a fortnight.
"This is our boat, it's been hijacked by the refugees, and the Rudd government
hasn't got a clue what to do," Senator Fielding said.
"The Rudd government has a band-aid solution. The Indonesian solution is an
Indonesian fiasco and it's clearly not working."
Australian Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said an Australian solution to the
asylum seeker issue was required, one that was practical, long-term and humane.
"The prime minister, the leader of the opposition and all the other parties in the
parliament - including the Greens - should be putting our heads together and coming
up with a real solution," she told ABC TV.
Senator Hanson-Young called on the government to accept the 78 Tamils, saying she
feared they would be forcibly removed from the Oceanic Viking and put back into
Indonesian detention centres otherwise.