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Australian Customs Patrol - Source: Reuters -
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New Zealand is unlikely to offer refuge to 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers plucked from a stricken boat, Immigration Minister Jonathan Coleman says.
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 Indonesian authorities 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.
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.
There was an international agreement on dealing with people smuggling and boat people which emphasised prevention, interception and deterrence, Coleman said.
"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."
Green MP Keith Locke said on Sunday the government should offer to take some of them.
"We certainly have the capacity to take in some more asylum seekers who are fleeing persecution in their home country," he said.
"The current crisis is caused by the repressive actions of the Sri Lankan government towards Tamils in the aftermath of that country's civil war."
