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Aus rejects asylum seekers
07/12/2007 11:44 - (SA)
Sydney - Australia will deport a group of Indonesians after rejecting their argument that they should receive asylum because their livelihood was destroyed by an Australian crackdown on illegal fishing in its northern waters.
The three men, three women and 10 children were rescued from a leaking fishing boat last month after their stricken vessel pulled up alongside an oil ship in the Timor Sea.
The families, from the Indonesian island of Roti - about 500km northwest of Australia - said they had been suffering economic losses from Australia's crackdown on illegal fishing in its northern territorial waters, and had no choice but to seek asylum in Australia.
Immigration Minister Chris Evans said their claim had been rejected.
"On the information provided, my department is satisfied that they have not raised issues which might engage Australia's protection obligations," Evans said in a statement.
"People from other countries do not have a right to stay in Australia just because they would be economically better off here," he said.
Since 2005, Australian officials have seized more than 500 illegal fishing vessels in northern waters - the vast majority from Indonesia - and arrested thousands of people.
- AP
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