New Zealand rules out taking Sri Lankan asylum seekers

Nov 10, 2009, 3:20 GMT

   Wellington - New Zealand ruled out Tuesday taking any of the 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers on board the Australian Customs ship Oceanic Viking off Indonesia.

   Confirming that Australia had raised the question with the government, Immigration Minister Jonathan Coleman said, 'We're wary of rewarding actions that seek to jump the queue for entry to New Zealand.'

   Three weeks after being picked up from a sinking boat, the asylum seekers, who were heading for Australia, are refusing to go ashore and be processed at an Indonesia detention centre. Indonesia has said the Oceanic Viking must leave its waters by Friday.

   'There are literally thousands of displaced people across the Asia-Pacific region,' Coleman said. 'The New Zealand government does not believe that an ad-hoc approach to dealing with individual cases like the Oceanic Viking will send the right message.

   'Sending the wrong message won't help solve similar situations that may arise in the future.'

   Coleman said the government believed the best approach for dealing with the wider issue of people smuggling and boat people was through the Bali Process, a multilateral arrangement signed by New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and 39 other countries in the Asia-Pacific.

   He said the broader issues were not going to go away and the Bali Process emphasized prevention, interception and deterrence.