More than 150 Sri Lanka asylum seekers have been flown from an Australian immigration detention camp to the Pacific island nation of Nauru after they refused to consider returning to India, an Australian official said today.
The 157 ethnic Tamil men, women and children had left the southeast Indian port of Pondicherry in an Indian-flagged ship in late June and were intercepted by an Australian customs vessel.
They spent weeks aboard the customs vessel before they were transferred to the remote Curtin Detention Centre in Western Australia state on July 27 after India agreed to consider taking them back.
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said that none of the asylum seekers would agree to meet with Indian consular officials.
"It is disappointing that this opportunity has been squandered," Morrison said in a statement.
Sri Lanka emerged in 2009 from a brutal civil war between government troops and the now-defeated separatist Tamil Tiger rebels. Minority Tamils say they are still suffering violence at the hands of the military.
But Morrison said many of the asylum seekers were long-term residents of India and were safe from persecution. India had agreed to take back any of its citizens who might have been on board, and consider taking back Indian residents who may be Sri Lankan citizens.
The Tamils were flown over Friday night in three flights to Nauru. Australia runs immigration detention camps on Nauru and Papua New Guinea as part of its policy of refusing to allow asylum seekers who attempt to reach Australia by boat to ever settle on the Australian mainland.
Morrison said any of the Tamils who proved to be genuine refugees would be resettled on Nauru, a tiny atoll with a population of less than 10,000. Those who failed the refugee test would be returned to Sri Lank.
"Going Back to India, where they are likely to have family and friends, is no longer an option," Morrison said.
London-based human rights watchdog Amnesty International condemned the transfer to Nauru.
"Australia has once again violated its obligations under the UN Refugee Convention by refusing to provide the 157 people the opportunity to claim asylum and seek protection in Australia," Amnesty's Australian refugee campaign coordinator Graeme McGregor said in a statement.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott stood by his government's policy of denying asylum to those who come by boat.
"Even if you get here, you'll never stay here," Abbott told reporters.
