Rudd`s asylum seeker claims disputed

As the federal government seeks another extension for the Oceanic Viking to remain
in Indonesian waters, its claims that the 78 asylum seekers on board are already
being processed have been rejected.
Meanwhile, a commercial vessel with the survivors from Sunday's Indian Ocean tragedy
is continuing its passage to Christmas Island.
The LNG Pioneer is expected to arrive there late on Friday morning with 27 survivors
and one deceased person from the mishap 350 nautical miles northwest of the Cocos
Islands which left 12 asylum seekers dead, including two boys aged 13 and 14.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd maintained that Canberra and Jakarta had "infinite"
patience in dealing with the 78 asylum seekers aboard the Oceanic Viking.
The 78 Tamil asylum seekers are still refusing to leave the vessel which has been
anchored off the Indonesian island of Bintan for the past 11 days, having declared
they will not budge unless resettled in Australia.
Mr Rudd has repeatedly said the asylum seekers were being processed in preparation
for their transfer to the Tanjung Pinang detention centre.
"These individuals are being properly processed in using the IOM and the UNHCR
officials who are currently in Indonesia," Mr Rudd told ABC Radio on Thursday.
But both the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and International
Organisation for Migration (IOM) dispute the claims.
"We haven't had any contact with them at all at this point," IOM spokesman Chris Lom
told ABC Radio.
The Greens accused Mr Rudd of misleading Australians as to the true circumstances
surrounding the standoff.
Greens immigration spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young said the UNHCR had also advised
that it had not begun processing the 78 asylum seekers and still needed approval
from Indonesia to begin doing so.
"Yet the prime minister is trying to tell the public that they are being processed
right now. He is either not across his brief or he is being deliberately
misleading," Senator Hanson-Young said.
Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull said Mr Rudd's border protection policy was in
tatters.
"Kevin Rudd's catastrophic policy on border protection is becoming more and more
apparent to everybody except for him," he said.
Mr Rudd on Thursday repeated his position that the group would not be taken to
Christmas Island, and would be offloaded in Indonesia under an agreement struck
between Canberra and Jakarta.
"I've always said we have infinite patience, as the Indonesians have said. Each of
these vessels is dealt with in terms of its own individual circumstances. Some are
more complex than others," he told ABC Radio.
"We'll continue to work through each of the details with this as you would expect as
we do with every vessel."
Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said Australia had asked for
another extension.
"We are working on that," he told AAP.
"It won't be a problem."
Faizasyah said he was not sure how long an extension Australia had requested or how
much longer Indonesia would allow the Oceanic Viking to remain in Indonesian waters.
A spokesman for Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor said the Australian
government would seek the necessary approvals as required.
The extension is the second granted to the Customs vessel which is usually used for
patrolling the Southern Ocean. It was purpose built for extreme environment
fisheries protection.
It has previously been used to track the Japanese whaling fleet during its annual
hunt in the Southern Ocean.