AUSTRALIA: An Australian naval vessel yesterday towed a fishing boat carrying 14 suspected asylum-seekers out to sea.
The suspected asylum-seekers, who claim to be Kurds, had reached Melville Island, 80 kilometres north of Darwin, on Tuesday.
The Immigration Minister, Senator Amanda Vanstone, said the navy had towed the boat away from the island while a people-smuggling task force decides what to do with them.
Defence, immigration, customs and quarantine officials were last night interviewing the 14 men and four crew on board the naval ship Geelong.
A regulation passed late on Tuesday by the government excised Australia's Tiwi Islands from the migration zone, thus allowing for the boat to be towed.
"These regulations are effective; that means the people will not be entitled to make a valid visa application," said Ms Vanstone.
The Australian Democrats have moved a disallowance motion, but this cannot be heard before Friday, she said.
The Northern Territory government, which is controlled by the Labor party, asked whether Darwin would be the next port excised from the migration zone.
The territory's Chief Minister Clare Martin said they were not consulted before or after the federal government moved to excise the islands from the migration zone."To put it into place yesterday for Melville Island, and not a call to the territory, not a call to any of the authorities in the territory, I think it is extraordinary behaviour from the federal government," she said.