Refugees refuse to leave ship

Australia was last night edging closer to a second refugee stand-off in as many months after a group of over 200 mainly Iraqi and Palestinian nationals refused to disembark from an Australian naval vessel in Nauru.

The group told officials yesterday they had paid people trafficking refugees thousands of dollars to be brought to Australia adding they would not move from the Manoora until it lands at an Australian port.

The refugees were intercepted in international waters by the Australian navy on September 7th as they were sailing to Australia.

They were hoping to apply for asylum on reaching their destination. Instead, they were taken from their boat and transferred onto the Manoora which already had 433 mainly Afghan refugees on board from the Norwegian freighter Tampa. The Tampa was refused entry to Australia last month.

The Manoora had been sailing to Nauru with the Tampa refugees after the island nation agreed to take the bulk of the Tampa refugees in exchange for a A$20 million financial package from Australia. When the extra 230 refugees were intercepted Nauru agreed to take them too.

But last Monday when the Manoora reached Nauru, the refugees told officials they would not leave the ship until they were brought to Australia. Throughout the week, the Tampa refugees have left the Manoora in small groups with the last of them setting foot on the island yesterday.

But yesterday afternoon when the time came for the second group of 230 to disembark they refused, repeating their demand to be taken to Australia.

Late last night, officials from the International Office of Migration were still trying to negotiate a resolution to the stand-off.

The IOM is a non-government body dealing with refugees around the world. If the stand-off continues it will be a major embarrassment for the Australian government which provoked massive international condemnation when it refused to let the Tampa refugees land on Australian soil.