Indonesia extends deadline for refugee return

Indonesian officials have extended by a week the deadline for an Australian ship carrying 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers to leave its waters.

The asylum seekers are ethnic Tamils, including women and children. They were found drifting in a wooden boat with a broken engine in international waters near Indonesia, where they were picked up by the Australian Customs Service ship 12 days ago. They were taken to an immigration center on Bintan Island in Indonesia to be assessed under United Nations refugee rules.

The Indonesian government has refused to move the Sri Lankans off the boat but Australia says the migrants are Indonesia's responsibility according to the laws of the sea. To complicate the issue, the Sri Lankans are reportedly refusing to get off the ship, saying they want to go to Australia.

Sri Lanka asylum seekers stand on the deck of an Australian Customs  and Immigration Fisheries Patrol vessel anchored off Indonesia's  Riau Island of Tanjung Pinang on October 27. Indonesia on Friday  gave an Australian customs boat another week to end a standoff  with 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers who are refusing to disembark  on Indonesia's Bintan island.(AFP/Roslan Rahman)