Two dozen asylum seekers, including some Nepalis, stranded in Indonesia say Australian authorities blew up the boat that carried them towards Australia’s Christmas Island then sent them back in a lifeboat, Indonesian officials said yesterday.

The Indonesia Search and Rescue Agency evacuated 26 migrants after the local navy found the lifeboat stranded on Monday near Agropeni beach in Kebumen district of Central Java. Australia’s new policy of using lifeboats to send back asylum seekers found in unseaworthy vessels has angered Indonesia, which sees it as a breach of sovereignty.

The migrants from Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Iran are being held at the local immigration office in the nearby district of Cilacap, said Imam Prawira, the office’s head of investigation and enforcement.

Prawira said, according to a Pakistani migrant, they were rejected near the maritime border by Australia, which transferred them into the lifeboat. Kebumen police Capt Warsidi said two of three Indonesian crewmen were being questioned while another escaped. The crewmen claimed to have received just 10 million rupiah ($860) out of 30 million ($2,585) promised by the migrants once they arrived in Australia, Warsidi said.

According to Kebumen police, the migrants left for the Australian territory of Christmas Island from West Java on February 19. Three days later, they arrived near the border but were intercepted by an Australian warship.

Published on: 27 February 2014 | The Himalayan Times