One Sri Lankan, Kajendran, told Fairfax Media that Papua New Guinea - where asylum seekers are soon to be sent under a radical expansion of the Manus Island processing centre - was ''OK, no problem''. Lucky escape: A survivor is helped ashore on Wednesday after her asylum seeker boat sank, drowning 11 people off West Java. Credit:AFP ''But for me, any country in the world is better than going back to Sri Lanka. I can't go back to Sri Lanka,'' the 28-year-old said, adding that he did not believe the Australian government's new policy would change anything. ''People will keep trying to go to Australia,'' he said. ''People like me who can't go back to our country, they'll keep trying.'' Others suggested they may continue to seek asylum in Australia later in the year. Kajendran added that when conditions improved in September, he might try the journey again.

But another, 27-year-old Sri Lankan Ahmad Nazir, said he would not risk his life again. He described the wooden ship the group travelled on as being ''old and broke everywhere''. ''It's cheating, the agent cheated us,'' he said. ''The agent said it was [a] big passenger ship and that [the] Indonesian navy would guard it to the border with Australia, so it's safe. But when I saw that big old ship, maybe it's 100 years old, I know they cheated us.'' He said there were not enough lifejackets for all on board. ''I don't swim and was just holding on a piece of wood. I thought I was about to die after about seven hours in the sea, but suddenly there were boats coming, rescuing us.'' Mr Nazir said this was his third attempt at getting onto a boat bound for Australia - the first did not proceed because of stormy conditions and the second was stopped because there were not enough passengers.

A police spokesman said if passengers had been in the ocean for 10 hours before they were found, as one survivor claimed, the journey would have begun in Jakarta. The boat, reportedly carrying about 200 asylum seekers, capsized in heavy seas off the fishing village of Cidaun in West Java on Wednesday. The latest tragedy is the third in two weeks. It follows the death of a baby and several other people in a capsizing 13 days ago. Another four people drowned several days later after a boat carrying about 150 asylum seekers capsized in rough seas off Christmas Island. Loading With James Robertson