Indonesia says it will not accept rescued asylum seekers Australia has tried to return

Updated

Indonesia's security affairs minister says his country will not accept a group of asylum seekers Australia has attempted to send back to Indonesia.

The Navy has rescued passengers from an asylum seeker boat that got into trouble off the coast of Java yesterday morning.

Indonesia says the boat was outside its territorial waters but it is understood Australia attempted to get Indonesia to take the asylum seekers back to Java.

In a text message, Indonesia's coordinating minister for security and political affairs, Djoko Suyanto, told the ABC that Indonesia has never agreed to such wishes and will not accept returns of asylum seekers.

In fact it has three times - once last year and twice in September this year - but Indonesia does not want it to continue.

Mr Suyanto out-ranks both the foreign minister and the defence minister and is one step closer to the president in the Indonesian government hierarchy.

Earlier today, Australia's Immigration Minister, Scott Morrison, rejected claims of a standoff over the fate of the asylum seekers but refused to provide any further details.

Mr Morrison said Australia was negotiating with Indonesia about where to send the latest group and rejected suggestions there was a mid-ocean stand-off between the two countries.

"It's an ongoing operational matter and the persons at risk have all been accounted for," he said.

"We're not going to go into the micro-details."

Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop, who is at a forum in Bali, confirmed negotiations were underway.

She says she held talks with her Indonesian counterpart today but would not say whether the rescue operation was discussed.

"It is an operational matter. It's currently under discussion and it wouldn't be appropriate for me to comment at all while the discussions with Indonesia are underway and while an operation is underway." he said.

During his weekly briefing with journalists, Mr Morrison refused to answer the bulk of questions about the asylum seekers, including:

Reporter: Are [the asylum seekers] on their way to Christmas Island? Morrison: These matters continue to be dealt with in the practice we've been adopting for the last eight weeks under Operation Sovereign Borders and we'll continue to do it the way we've been doing it.

Reporter: Was the Australian vessel the first one to respond? Morrison: What occurs in these situations is where we get a request for assistance and if we're in a position to do so, we do.

Reporter: Have you spoken to Indonesian authorities about this incident? Morrison: It's our regular practice to be in constant communication with Indonesian authorities about all such incidents and that's a very standard practice.

Reporter: Is the boat still in trouble? Morrison: All the people that were assisted have been accounted for.

When asked why he couldn't be more forthcoming with information, Mr Morrison said: "That would go to our conduct of on-water operations, and I and the commander are not going to put our operations at risk through a public commentary of those operations."

Opposition immigration spokesman Richard Marles is demanding more details from the Government about the rescue operation.

"If there is a stand-off and our Defence Forces are being used in this way, then Australians have a right to know," he said.

"Mr Morrison is treating Australians with absolute contempt by continuing this farce. They can't keep hiding the truth."

This afternoon, Prime Minister Tony Abbott defended the lack of information being provided by his Immigration Minister.

Mr Abbott told journalists they were entitled to ask any questions they wished, but the highest priority for the Government was stopping the boats.

"None of you would want to jeopardise our operations to stop the boats, surely given that we have seen an absolutely tragic toll in terms of lives lost at sea while people smuggling operations continue," he said.

"None of you would want to jeopardise the success of these operations."

At the weekly briefing, Lieutenant General Campbell confirmed no boats had been intercepted in the past week, which means it has been about three weeks since the last arrival.

Mr Morrison says despite the slowdown in arrivals, the Government remained on high alert.

"We are now in the pre-monsoon period which is traditionally one of the busiest, and as we move into December, it's also the most dangerous time of year for people to get on boats," he said.

In the past week, 10 Iranian asylum seekers chose to return home, taking the total number of voluntary returns since Operation Sovereign Borders began to 77.

Topics: refugees, federal-government, world-politics, foreign-affairs, immigration, indonesia, australia

First posted