Don Greenlees, Jakarta – Fifty-six Sri Lankan asylum-seekers who landed in East Timor en route to New Zealand in a 14 metre fishing boat will be prevented from continuing their journey and will have claims to refugee status processed in East Timor.
International humanitarian agencies won the agreement of the East Timorese Government to process the asylum-seekers in Dili during a late-night meeting with Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri on Friday. The 56 men on the boat were then brought ashore, ending a five-day wait in Dili harbour.
After 40 days at sea, the asylum-seekers have been given food and medical attention in a refugee transit centre in the west of Dili, originally set up to manage the flow of East Timorese refugees coming back from West Timor.
A spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Dili said yesterday that Mr Alkatiri had indicated he would not permit the men to continue their journey because the vessel was unsafe.
The East Timorese Government has also been under pressure from Australia and New Zealand to prevent the vessel from departing.
"It was dangerously overcrowded and ill-equipped for the journey," said the UNHCR spokesman. "The East Timorese Government has been fully co-operative and I believe they have compassion for these people. I think it's also for that reason they believe it would be wrong for that boat to be allowed to continue."
The asylum-seekers occupied virtually all the space above and below the decks, and had insufficient numbers of life rafts.
Despite the length of time at sea, the men, aged from their mid-teens to their 50s, were in relatively good physical condition when brought ashore late on Friday night.
Officers from the UNHCR and the International Office of Migration are due to start interviewing the group later this week in order to process their claims.
So far, there are no indications why the men made the journey from Sri Lanka, although officials in contact with the group said it was apparent they were "desperately poor". If any of the group declares a desire to go back to Sri Lanka, the IOM could arrange for their return quickly. Otherwise, claims for refugee status will be processed.
In the event these claims were not successful, it would be up the East Timorese Government to decide whether to allow them to stay, seek to deport them to Sri Lanka, or try to find another country willing to accept them.