Australian ships wait to take refugees off freighter

Two Australian naval vessels were last night on stand-by off Christmas Island close to the Norwegian freighter Tampa and were preparing to take the 438 mainly Afghan refugees on board to Papua New Guinea. There they will then be airlifted to New Zealand and the tiny South Pacific island nation of Nauru.

The breakthrough that appears to have ended the crisis came on Saturday morning when the Australian government announced that both New Zealand and Nauru had agreed to take the refugees. Australia will pay for the transportation of the refugees to New Zealand and Nauru and will also pay for their upkeep.

The refugees will have their asylum applications processed, and if accepted they will be permitted to apply for citizenship in those countries.

Some Australian reports late yesterday also suggested the refugees may be allowed to apply for citizenship in Norway and perhaps even in Australia.

Nauru lies just south of the equator, over 4,000 km north-west of Sydney. It is 21 sq km and has a population of 12,000.

The refusal by the Australian Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, to allow the group into Australia has been condemned around the world. But over the weekend Mr Howard insisted his iron fist approach will now become Australian policy.

He said Australian military forces are to establish a major surveillance presence in the Indian Ocean off Indonesia and any vessels found transporting refugees to Australia will be turned back to Indonesia. If they refuse to alter their course they will be towed back, Mr Howard said.

His handling of the crisis attracted condemnation from the UN and from many governments and human rights organisations.

The Norwegian Foreign Minister, Mr Thorbjoern Jagland, yesterday revealed he had summoned Australia's ambassador to protest at the fact that the Norwegian ship was not granted the right to land on Australian territory, which he claimed goes against international maritime law.

"We have also protested over the fact that the Norwegian captain has not been given the right to consult his lawyer," he said.

The Australian press was divided on the issue and the main opposition party condemned the government's actions after initially rowing in behind Mr Howard. The Labor leader, Mr Kim Beazley, claimed the Prime Minister was simply using the Tampa crisis to win favour with anti-immigration voters ahead of a federal election later this year.

Nonetheless, the crisis is being seen as a major political victory for Mr Howard with the public mostly favouring his tough line following the arrival of almost 2,000 boat people on Australian shores during August.

The 438 refugees last night spent their seventh night on board the Tampa since their rescue from a sinking ferry.

Mr Howard told a press conference in Sydney yesterday the refugees would be transferred from the Tampa to the HMAS Manoora and then taken to Papua New Guinea. The Manoora would lower a landing ramp to connect with a "roll-on roll-off" ramp on the Tampa, allowing the asylum seekers to walk from vessel to vessel.

It was not clear late last night when that transfer might take place. A court injunction was granted to civil liberties organisations yesterday preventing the removal of the refugees from Australian waters.

Once the refugees have been transported, Mr Howard is to send a top-level delegation to Indonesia. The Australian Immigration Minister, Mr Philip Ruddock, the Defence Minister, Mr Peter Reith, and the Foreign Minister, Mr Alexander Downer, will meet their Indonesian counterparts in Jakarta, probably later this week, to discuss ways in which Australia can assist Indonesia in preventing people smuggling gangs from using Indonesian ports to send their human cargoes to Australia.