Sri Lanka deal bid to curb asylum seekers

CANBERRA - Australia and Sri Lanka have agreed to toughen measures against people smugglers and to improve living conditions for ethnic Tamils in a bid to stem the flow of asylum seekers trying to cross the Indian Ocean from Indonesia.

The move was announced after high level talks in Colombo between Foreign Minister Stephen Smith and Sri Lankan counterpart Rohitha Bogollagama, and the signing of a new memorandum of understanding on the issue.

"We have agreed that there is more that we can do and that's reflected by the memorandum we've signed so far as legal aspects, legal co-operation against people smuggling are concerned, particularly in areas of prosecution," Smith said.

His visit to Colombo was triggered by a renewed surge in asylum seekers setting off in Indonesian boats, many of them Tamils fleeing Sri Lanka in the wake of their final defeat that ended the long-running civil war. Canberra is now facing a crisis in Indonesia, where its Customs patrol ship Oceanic Viking has been held in the western Java port of Merak for three weeks by the refusal of 78 Tamils to disembark.

The asylum seekers were among a boatload rescued by the ship inside Indonesian waters, and have rejected demands that they land for processing in Indonesian refugee camps.

Jakarta has given the Oceanic Viking until Friday to resolve the standoff and leave but, despite hopes of a solution that could include some of the asylum seekers being accepted by New Zealand, negotiations remained deadlocked yesterday.

Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard told Sky News that Canberra would honour the agreement it made with Jakarta to disembark the Tamils in Indonesia.

"We will keep working on this patiently and methodically," she said.

"It is an unusual set of circumstances where an Australian vessel went and rescued people in another nation's waters ... responding to our obligations under the international law of the sea."

In Sri Lanka, Smith and Bogollagama said in a joint statement that the two countries were committed to work together against people smuggling, which threatened border security and the management of migration.

"We note that people smugglers and people-smuggling syndicates work without regard for human safety or national legal frameworks," they said.

Under the memorandum of understanding the two countries will boost co-operation against the organisers of the trade, including increased operational assistance and information sharing.

Australia will also give Sri Lanka A$11 million ($13.2 million) to help reconstruction and rehabilitation of the devastated Tamil homelands in the northern and eastern provinces.

Gillard said it was important that after winning the war the Sri Lankan Government now needed to win the peace, and that while Australia would continue to accept genuine refugees, peace at home was the best answer.

"We're a nation that honours our obligations under the Refugee Convention, but I think we would all recognise that when it comes to people moving around the globe, the best thing is if we can resolve the circumstances in their home country so that they can pursue their lives there peacefully and without fear of persecution," she said.