REFUGEE

A month-long impasse over a boat carrying dozens of Sri Lankan Tamils stranded off Indonesia ended on Wednesday with the asylum seekers disembarking after securing an Australian promise to consider them for fast-track resettlement.

The Tamils’ earlier refusal to leave the Oceanic Viking, an Australian customs vessel, in Indonesia, after they were picked up from their sinking boat by the Australians at Jakarta’s request last month, had strained relations between Canberra and JakartaSusilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Indonesian president, this week cancelled a trip to Canberra as critics in both countries suggested Australia was exploiting its neighbour to fix its boat-people problem. Kevin Rudd, the Australian prime minister, fell in public opinion polls as the opposition charged him with mishandling the situation.

Late last week 22 of the 78 passengers on board the boat disembarked on Indonesia’s Bintan island after Canberra said those with refugee cards would be resettled in Australia within four weeks. The remaining 56 left on Wednesday.

Australian officials have refused to confirm the Sri Lankans were lured off the vessel by promises of special treatment. Sri Lankans stranded in Indonesian camps often wait years to be considered for admission to Australia.

Malcolm Turnbull, the Australian opposition leader, said the deal with the Sri Lankans would encourage people-smugglers. He claimed border security had declined since Mr Rudd’s Labor government took over from John Howard two years ago.

The government last year ended Mr Howard’s so-called Pacific solution, which kept asylum seekers in detention centres in Nauru and Papua New Guinea without access to Australia’s legal system. The government also scrapped the special visas the previous administration used to deny asylum applicants the right to work or welfare benefits.

Although the number of asylum seekers attempting to enter Australia is relatively small, the issue has created heated debate. Mr Howard gained political mileage with his hardline approach.

So far in 2009 about 50 boats carrying just over 2,200 asylum seekers, mostly from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, have arrived in Australian waters. Many of those have been sent to Christmas Island for processing.

In 2008, Australia and New Zealand recorded a 19 per cent rise in asylum applications to about 5,000, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The US and Canada had just under 86,000 and Europe just under 290,000.

Australia had the world’s second-largest refugee resettlement programme after the US last year, accepting 11,000 people from UN camps around the world.