Australia and Norway were last night embroiled in a major diplomatic row after the Australian government rushed legislation through the House of Representatives which allows for the forced removal from Australian waters of a Norwegian-registered freighter with more than 400 mainly Afghan asylum-seekers on board.
Late last night local time the bill had still to be passed by the Australian Senate but the government extended the sitting hours in the Senate allowing it to sit all night if necessary.
The Australian Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, said the legislation would give his government added legal protection in the event of Australian troops forcing the Norwegian freighter, the Tampa, out of Australian waters.
"This bill will confirm our ability to remove to the high seas those vessels and persons on board that have entered territorial waters under Australian sovereignty contrary to our wishes," he said.
The Australian Foreign Minister, Mr Alexander Downer, said the bill would allow Australia to protect its territorial integrity and would see a clear signal to would-be asylum-seekers that Australia was not a soft touch.
"We have to do everything to protect our territorial integrity and I think other countries will sympathise with us in that," he told Channel 7 news.
Meanwhile, the 438 asylum-seekers, some of whom are now seriously ill, were last night spending their third night aboard the Tampa, which is anchored off Australia's Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean.
Australia's tough stance follows two weeks in which almost 1,500 illegal boat-people landed on Australian shores, necessitating the opening of three new detention centres.
The move to rush through the legislation last night came just hours after the Norwegian government issued a strongly worded warning to the Australians that if they took control of the Tampa it would lead to a grave situation between the two countries.
And yesterday the Norwegian Foreign Minister, Mr Thorbjoern Jagland, said Norway is to report Australia's refusal to let the Norwegian freighter enter a port to UN agencies and the Red Cross.
The Norwegian government's warning to the Australians earlier yesterday not to take control of the ship followed the boarding of the freighter by Australian troops just before noon local time as it was anchored 17 nautical miles off Christmas Island, around 1,500 miles north-west of Australia. The troops boarded the ship after the captain started its engines and began heading toward Christmas Island despite being told by port authorities he did not have permission to dock.
When the troops boarded, the ship stopped and was last night anchored around five nautical miles from land.
About a dozen of the asylum-seekers were said to be seriously ill while four of the women on board are pregnant. The Australian government's bill is retrospective and contains clauses which prevent any of the those on the Tampa claiming asylum in Australia. The asylum-seekers could not claim asylum even in the event of them jumping overboard, as they have threatened to do, and being rescued by Australian authorities or in the event they take ill and are air-lifted to Australia.
