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SYDNEY - Australia has asked Indonesia and Nauru to take 85 asylum seekers rescued from the Indian Ocean, the Government said at the weekend, as media reported that the group would be sent back to Sri Lanka via Indonesia.
Australia's conservative Government, which takes one of the world's toughest stands against illegal immigration, said the 83 Sri Lankans and two Indonesians would not land on the Australian mainland.
"These discussions are preliminary at the moment but I can say that they won't come to Australia," Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews said.
"We are simply asking the question of Indonesia and there will be further discussion, and that will be a matter for ultimately a decision by the Indonesian Government," he said.
Andrews said he believed asylum seekers had never been sent back to Indonesia before, a common transit point for boat people who target Australia's vast coastline.
Andrews and Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said earlier that the group had been taken to Australia's remote Indian Ocean territory of Christmas Island so that health checks could be performed and information about them gathered.
- REUTERS
