Sydney – Refugee activists branded the Australian government cruel Friday for flying a group of 43 Indonesian asylum seekers who accused Jakarta of genocide to a remote island detention center.

The group of 36 adults and seven children from Indonesia's restive West Papua province arrived Wednesday on Australia's remote Cape York Peninsula in a small boat.

The group accuses Indonesia of terrorism and genocide in West Papua, the country's easternmost province, and are expected to seek refugee status in Australia.

While their applications are considered, they will be held on Christmas Island, a remote Australian territory in the Indian Ocean.

"It's an expensive, unnecessary and cruel exercise the government is putting these refugees through," said Nick Chesterfield from the Australia West Papua Association. "We've got the ability to look after these people in the community."

Single men will be held in a purpose-built immigration detention center, while families will live in immigration department monitored houses on the island.

Prime Minister John Howard defended the decision to move the Indonesians to Christmas Island. "That's entirely appropriate," he told reporters in Sydney. "Their position will be assessed, they will be interviewed and they will be dealt with in accordance with the law."

Australian Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said Thursday that the asylum seekers' cases will not be influenced by Australia's relationship with Indonesia, which both countries are trying to bolster by negotiating a new security pact.

But in Jakarta, foreign ministry spokesman Yuri Thamrin appeared to put pressure on Canberra by saying that accepting the boat people's claims of wide scale rights abuses "could strengthen perceptions in Indonesia that there are parties in and around (Australia) who support or express sympathy for separatism." This "could disturb bilateral relations between the two countries," he added.