Fede: Australia tackles Indonesia over boatpeople

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Fede: Australia tackles Indonesia over boatpeople

CANBERRA, April 22 AAP - The federal government has taken Indonesia to task about aboat carrying 42 Vietnamese asylum seekers that it allowed to set sail for Australia.

Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock said it was no surprise Indonesia did not try tostop the boat, and the issue had been raised with Australia's northern neighbour on theweekend.

Indonesian police have confirmed the boat set sail for Australia on Saturday afterloading up with fuel, food, water and medical supplies.

If the boat arrives in Australia, it would be the first to have reached the countrysince August 22, 2001, when 359 people landed at Christmas Island.

"It doesn't surprise me in the sense that Indonesia has always taken the view thatin relation to people who were seeking to transit that they had no specific obligationsin relation to them," Mr Ruddock told ABC radio.

The incident could sour relations between Australia and Indonesia ahead of a regionalpeople-smuggling conference they will co-host next week in Bali.

"We've already taken up the issue with Indonesia directly," Mr Ruddock said.

"Well at this stage, the response is that Indonesia will see what it can do in relationto the matter.

"It's a little too early to be prescriptive about that, those representations haveonly been made over the course of this weekend."

But Mr Ruddock said he hoped the upcoming conference would continue to foster closeties between the two nations.

"The conference that's being held next week with Indonesia is a co-operative exercisein that it's one that's worked well in recent times and one which we hope will continueto work well," he said.

The last vessel to attempt a landing in Australia was turned around by the navy inDecember 2001, with those on board sent to offshore detention centres under the so-calledPacific Solution.

AAP sal/tnf/jlw

KEYWORD: INDON BOAT SECOND DAYLEAD