Irishman held over refugee escape in Australia

An Irish backpacker from Co Cork has been charged with aiding and abetting the escape of two Afghan boys from a detention centre in Australia.

Mr Jonathan Joseph O'Shea (22), a graphic artist, was arrested along with eight others. His camper van was impounded. At a hearing, Mr O'Shea was charged and refused bail.

He has been travelling in Australia on a one-year working visa.

The charges relate to the escape of 35 refugees from the Woomera compound three weeks ago. Yesterday Alamdar Baktiari (14) and his brother Muntazer (12) walked into the British consulate in Melbourne, more than 1,000 kilometres from the remote Woomera.

Australian authorities insisted the boys are not genuine refugees and less than seven hours after they applied for asylum, British Foreign Secretary Mr Jack Straw rejected their claims in London.

The boys, who claim to be Afghan refugees, were taken late last night to Melbourne's Maribyrnong detention centre where their father, Mr Ali Baktiari, tried to visit them today.

But before he arrived, immigration officials had whisked the boys on a chartered flight back to the razor wire of Woomera where their mother and her three other children are also in detention.

The Australian government believes the same group that helped the boys flee Woomera in a mass breakout in late June took them to the British consulate, where sympathetic lawyers took up their case.

Australian Prime Minister Mr John Howard said today that political activists were using the boys to try to destroy the government's tough immigration policies, but vowed there would be no backing down.

"We are in the process of maintaining the integrity of our border protection system and people are trying to break it," he said.

"There are people in Australia who are political activists, as well as lawyers, and they're trying to break it.

"We're not going to have it broken. We'll defend it in a humane, compassionate fashion, but people should understand we do not intend to alter our policy."

Additional reporting PA