Australia deported 37 Sri Lankans, many of whom risked a boat journey across the Indian Ocean to enter its shores illegally, an official said. The asylum seekers were deported on a flight chartered by Canberra, which has toughened its stand on a rising tide of boat people in recent months.
''It was the first time a special flight has been chartered for Sri Lankan immigrants,'' said a spokesman for the high commission.
Officials said 33 of the asylum seekers had use a fishing boat to land on the Cocos islands, a remote Australian territory about 3,000 km from Sri Lanka. They could not say how long the journey had taken or how the other four asylum seekers had entered Australia.
The boat's six-member crew had been charged in Australia and face up to 20 years in prison and fines of a 220,000 (US 114,000 dollars), the High Commission said.
Australia's resolve to keep out boat people became clear in August when the government refused to allow a Norwegian freighter to land with more than 400 mostly afghan asylum seekers rescued from a sinking Indonesian ferry.
Bureau Report