Asylum seekers blocked by Australian navy 'without first telling Jakarta'
Escorting of vessel back into Indonesian waters under hardline border policy may add to tensions, as Jakarta claims it was not informed
The Australian navy has turned back a boat from Indonesia carrying asylum seekers without first informing the authorities in Jakarta, it was claimed yesterday.
It is the first reported instance in which the new Australian government has turned a boat back without Indonesian co-operation, and could add to recent tensions between Jakarta and Canberra fuelled by a spying row.
The boat was carrying 45 immigrants, mostly from Somalia and Sudan, and arrived on Rote Island in eastern Indonesia in the early hours of Monday, Rote Ndao district police chief Hidayat said.
"Based on interviews with the asylum seekers, they had entered Australian waters near [the Australian territory of] Ashmore Reef on Saturday and were intercepted by an Australian naval boat," said Hidayat.
"The Australian boat accompanied the vessel and pushed it back to Indonesian waters towards Rote island," Hidayat said, adding that the asylum seekers were given life vests and a water pump.
He said he did not know how far the Australian vessel had accompanied the boat and whether it had entered Indonesia's search and rescue zone or its territorial waters.
[They] didn’t alert us that the boat would be pushed back to the island