Angus Hohenboken – Tamil asylum-seekers were "interrogated" by a Sri Lankan navy officer within the walls of an Indonesian immigration detention centre yesterday, a refugee advocate in Australia said.

Saradha Nathan, of the Australian Tamil Congress, last night said Captain Kapil and two other navy officers from the Sri Lankan Embassy had visited eight asylum-seekers from the boat moored at Merak in their detention centre in Jakarta.

She said Indonesian immigration officials escorted the Sri Lankans into the centre to talk to the asylum-seekers, who had signed Indonesian immigration forms two days before, several weeks after disembarking from the ship.

The navy officers were trying to negotiate the return of the Tamils to Sri Lanka and had threatened to deport them to Boosa jail in Sri Lanka, Ms Nathan said.

Fears were held for the security of their personal information, which could endanger their families in Sri Lanka. Ms Nathan urged the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to protect the asylum-seekers from interrogation.

"Indonesia should not allow Sri Lanka to have access to the asylum-seekers when they are trying to flee from persecution in Sri Lanka," Ms Nathan said.

"Indonesia is not a signatory to the Refugee Convention in Relation to the Status of Refugees and these asylum-seekers are not safe in Indonesian detention. They need to be brought to Australia immediately to have their cases processed in a country that provides asylum to refugees."

A further 244 asylum-seekers are still on the boat refusing to leave for fear of being sent back to Sri Lanka. They are pleading to have their cases for asylum processed in Australia.

The Indonesians were last year accused of restricting water supplies to the ship to force its occupants to ashore.