Paul Toohey – Attempts by Julia Gillard to get moving on her proposed asylum-seeker processing centre in East Timor have come at a bad time for Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, who is pres

East Timor says it will go ahead with a planned four billion dollar oil and gas hub on its southern coast whether Woodside Petroleum commits to onshore gas processing or not.

Dili – East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta said Wednesday he was waiting for the new Australian government to be installed before talks about a regional refugee centre could "re-op

Dili – East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta said Wednesday his country had "no plans" to build a detention centre for asylum seekers as proposed by Australia, but remained open to d

The Australian Government's proposal to develop a regional processing centre for asylum seekers East Timor looks more shaky by the day.

Stephen Fitzpatrick, Jakarta – Australia might be asked to fund detention centres in Indonesia to help Jakarta deter asylum-seekers from using the nation as a staging point.

Mark Dodd – Negotiations for an offshore refugee processing centre in East Timor appear to have stalled.

Indonesia appears lukewarm on Australia's plan to build a regional asylum-seeker processing centre in East Timor.

East Timorese Deputy Prime Minister Mario Viegas Carrascalao yesterday rejected an Australian proposal to process asylum-seekers.

Talek Harris, Sydney – Australia said on Tuesday it remained in talks with East Timor over a regional asylum seeker center despite a rejection by the tiny country's Parliament, which de

Nelson da Cruz, Dili – Timor's parliament voted Monday to reject an Australian proposal for the impoverished country to become a regional refugee processing centre for Australian-bound

Australian officials will travel to East Timor this week to continue discussing plans for a regional asylum processing centre.

Sydney – Australia's new prime minister Julia Gillard on Friday talked up her plan for a regional refugee centre to tackle people smuggling but backed away from suggestions it should be

Dili, East Timor – East Timor Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao said Thursday his government was open to discussing Australia's proposal to process Australia-bound asylum seekers in the impo

Sara Everingham, Dili – Prime Minister Julia Gillard's plan to send asylum seekers to a regional processing centre in East Timor is running into increasing opposition from the country's

Rohan Sullivan, Sydney – East Timor's president said Wednesday he supports in principle an Australian plan to turn his country into a regional center for processing asylum seekers but d

Hamish McDonald, Asia-Pacific editor – The East Timorese President, Jose Ramos-Horta, is "sympathetic" to the Australian Prime Minister's request to set up a processing centre for asylu

Stephen Fitzpatrick in Jakarta and Paul Cleary – East Timor MP Jose Teixeira was thoroughly perplexed yesterday by Julia Gillard's announcement of plans for an asylum-seeker processing

Sara Everingham, Kerri Ritchie and staff – East Timor's deputy prime minister says his country does not have the capacity to set up a regional processing centre for asylum seekers.

Rohan Sullivan, Sydney – Australia's new leader proposed Tuesday to stop an influx of asylum seeker boats by making East Timor a hub for processing UN refugee claims for people fleeing

Karlis Salna – Julia Gillard has flagged offshore refugee processing through East Timor as she seeks to reposition Labor on the asylum seeker issue ahead of the federal election.

Stephen Fitzpatrick – Indonesia warned yesterday that Jakarta would not allow itself to become a refugee processing centre for Australia.

Jakarta – The handling of foreign refugees that enter Indonesia, which are often referred to as illegal immigrants, is still of concern.

On 14 June 2010, East Timor community figure Joao Quintao (57), a retired Indonesian military senior sergeant, said that the thousands of refugees from East Timor living in refugee sett

Australia's government says it's seeking more information about claims of poor conditions and ill treatment of asylum seekers – including the use of a stun gun – at Indonesia's Tanjung

Jakarta – Some asylum seekers in an Indonesian detention center are on a hunger strike, saying immigration officials use stun guns and threaten to kill them.

Kerri Ritchie – Sri Lankan asylum seekers who were removed from an Indonesian port earlier this week say they are now being kept in cramped conditions in a detention centre which is lik

Tom Allard, Merak – It was a desperate final plea, sad and futile.

Stephen Fitzpatrick, Jakarta – A six-month asylum-seeker deadlock in Indonesia has finally been broken, with more than 200 Tamils agreeing to be taken from their makeshift dockside camp

Indonesia says Australia's decision to stop processing asylum seekers from Afghanistan and Sri Lanka will be "positive" for the region's fight against trafficking.

Tom Allard, Jakarta – The six-month impasse between Indonesian authorities and a group of about 240 asylum seekers who refused to leave their boat in the port of Merak appears to be end

"The Merak refugees and the Indonesian Solution, not people smuggling, should be at the top of the agenda for discussions between the Australian government and Indonesian President Yudh

Tom Allard, Jakarta – Sanjeev "Alex" Kuhendrarajah, who gained fame as spokesman for 254 Sir Lankan asylum seekers who refused to leave their boat after being intercepted on their way t

Sri Lankan refugees inside an Indonesian detention centre have entered the second week of a hunger strike aimed at winning them a resettlement deal like that given to the Sri Lankans in

The notorious Indonesian people-smuggler behind the failed attempt to bring 254 Sri Lankan asylum-seekers into Australia last year is facing trial for breaching sailing laws.

Putri Prameshwari, Cipayung – The room is not big, but there's just enough room for Fariba to let her four children run around with dolls in their hands.

Tom Allard – The notorious Indonesian people smuggler Abraham Louhenapessy, better known as Captain Bram, is likely to receive only a fine for attempting to bring 254 Sri Lankans in an

Stephanie March for PM – Indonesian authorities are accusing two Australian refugee advocates of breaching their visa conditions by trying to make contact with a group of asylum seekers

Indonesia will send up to 500 police and militia members to force Sri Lankan asylum seekers off a boat in Merak, separating their spokesman "Alex" from the group.

Paul Maley – Four of the Tamil asylum-seekers rescued by the Oceanic Viking and offered a special deal by the Rudd government will be refused visas after ASIO determined them a threat t

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

An Australian doctor says he has had to resort to giving medical advice over the phone to asylum seekers on a boat at an Indonesian port.

Paul Maley – Indonesia has rejected a proposal by Tony Abbott to tow seaworthy asylum boats back to Indonesia, saying Australia must deal with boats in its own waters.

Lindsay Murdoch and Yuko Narushima – Fears of a disease outbreak are causing tensions to rise among asylum seekers on a boat moored at the Indonesian port of Merak since October.

Paul Maley and Lanai Vasek – Indonesia is considering using force to end the extended stand-off with the boat of more than 240 Tamil asylum-seekers moored at Merak after last week's dea

Paul Maley – Indonesia has put Kevin Rudd on notice that the special treatment offered to the 78 Tamils aboard the Oceanic Viking must be extended to the 255 Sri Lankans moored off the

Around 40 people staged a lively protest outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta on Monday, 28 December.

Ari Sharp – The death of a Tamil man who had been aboard a boat moored at Merak in Indonesia has prompted renewed calls for Australia to help strike a deal to resettle the 246 people on

Indonesian authorities have been accused of assaulting a number of Sri Lankans who are aboard a boat in Indonesia's Merak port.

Adam Gartrell – One of almost 250 Sri Lankan asylum seekers who have spent the past 11 weeks refusing to leave their boat in Indonesia has died after allegedly being denied medical help