NZ unlikely to take boat refugees

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New Zealand is unlikely to offer refuge to 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers plucked from a stricken boat, Immigration Minister Jonathan Coleman said today.

Australian authorities have been trying for three weeks to persuade the asylum seekers to leave customs vessel Oceanic Viking, which picked them up, and enter a detention centre on the Indonesian island of Bintan.

They have expressed concerns about being shut up in camps there for years, but there have been reports Australia is negotiating with Indonesian authorities for any asylum claims to be processed faster and resettlement fast-tracked.

Those found to be refugees could go to New Zealand, Canada, or Australia, with Tamils already deemed refugees to be resettled first.

Dr Coleman confirmed there had been informal discussions with Australia, but New Zealand did not believe "an ad hoc approach dealing with individual cases like the Oceanic Viking" would send the right message.

There was an international agreement on dealing with people smuggling and boat people which emphasised prevention, interception and deterrence, Dr Coleman said.

"We're wary of rewarding actions that seek to jump the queue for entry to New Zealand. Sending the wrong message won't help solve similar situations that may arise in the near future," he said.

"For that reason the New Zealand Government would be unlikely to offer settlement to asylum seekers aboard the Oceanic Viking."

Meanwhile six Sri Lankan men caught by Australian authorities while trying to get to New Zealand have staged a protest inside the packed immigration detention centre at Christmas Island.

The six protesters have been fenced in the centre's "red block" and sleep in small metal cells built by the former Australian government of John Howard to hold the most dangerous or unstable detainees, The Australian newspaper reported.

The group's protest began on October 30 when one of the men climbed a light pole, believed to be more than 12m tall, and stayed there until he was talked down about eight hours later.

The men are trying to fight their imminent removal back to Sri Lanka - they were on their way to New Zealand to claim asylum when they were intercepted in early April in the Torres Strait, just north of Queensland.

Yesterday there were 1160 people being held on Christmas Island, most of them in the detention centre or under guard at a family compound or an adjacent facility.

Green MP Keith Locke said he was disappointed by Dr Coleman's statement.

"It is likely that Australia will continue to process Sri Lankan boat people, and accept some. It would be good for New Zealand, as a good neighbour, to share the load," Mr Locke said

"I don't agree with Dr Coleman that accepting Sri Lankan boat people would be rewarding those 'jumping the queue'. Risking one's life on a boat on the open sea is not done lightly. It shows how desperate these people are not to be returned to Sri Lanka."

Mr Locke said taking some of these people in would show New Zealand was a caring nation as it was in 2001 when it volunteered to take some of the Afghan refugees off the Tampa.

- NZPA