PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd says asylum-seekers still aboard the Australian customs vessel the Oceanic Viking won't be treated any differently from the few who have left the ship after a month-long impasse.
He denies the 22 Tamils who left the boat on Friday to go to Indonesia's Tanjung Pinang detention centre would be given automatic passage to Australia if they were found to be refugees.
''My understanding is there is no difference between those who are currently on the vessel and those who have disembarked the vessel,'' Mr Rudd said in Singapore.
''The underpinning assumption ... is that there is some special arrangement. My advice is there is not.''
An Immigration Department letter to all 78 asylum seekers aboard the Oceanic Viking gave an Australian Government guarantee that they would be resettled. It doesn't clarify where.
The director of diplomatic security in the Indonesian Foreign Affairs Department, Dr Sujatmiko, confirmed on Friday that some of the 22 were refugees and would be resettled in Australia within four weeks.
For more, pick up a copy of today's Canberra Times
Email a friend