NZ offer to asylum seekers 'unlikely'

New Zealand is unlikely to offer refuge to 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers plucked from a stricken boat, Immigration Minister Jonathan Coleman said yesterday.

Australian authorities have been trying for three weeks to persuade the asylum seekers to leave customs vessel Oceanic Viking, which picked them up, and enter a detention centre on the Indonesian island of Bintan.

They have expressed concerns about being shut up in camps there for years, but there have been reports Australia is negotiating with Indonesia for any asylum claims to be processed faster and resettlement fast-tracked.

Those found to be refugees could go to New Zealand, Canada, or Australia, with Tamils already deemed refugees to be resettled first.

Dr Coleman confirmed there had been informal discussions with Australia, but New Zealand did not believe "an ad hoc approach dealing with individual cases like the Oceanic Viking" would send the right message.

"We're wary of rewarding actions that seek to jump the queue for entry to New Zealand. Sending the wrong message won't help solve similar situations that may arise in the near future," he said. "For that reason the New Zealand Government would be unlikely to offer settlement to asylum seekers aboard the Oceanic Viking."

A visiting Sri Lankan Catholic priest yesterday joined the call for New Zealand to accept the asylum seekers.

Father Pan Jordan, who works with refugee resettlement in Brisbane, is urging New Zealand to have "mercy and compassion" because these asylum seekers would rather die than be sent back to Sri Lanka.

A meeting is being held in Auckland tonight for members of the Sri Lankan community who may have family members in camps or among the asylum seekers in Indonesia.

- ADDITIONAL REPORTING: LINCOLN TAN