Asylum seekers leave Australian ship

TANJUNG PINANG, Indonesia (AFP) - – Dozens of Sri Lankan asylum seekers left an Australian customs ship in Indonesia on Wednesday, ending a three-week protest over their claims for refugee status.

The ethnic Tamil migrants were seen being ferried away from the ship, the Oceanic Viking, on an Indonesian vessel amid heavy rain and high waves off Bintan island near Singapore.

The stand-off has fuelled an intense refugee debate in Australia and piled pressure on Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to stem the flow of boat people through Indonesia, amid a sharp increase in arrivals this year.

Police said all 56 migrants on board the Oceanic Viking had left the ship, after weeks of negotiations with Australian officials, who reportedly offered to expedite their asylum claims.

"We have done customs verifications and medical check-ups on all 56 migrants on the Oceanic Viking," foreign ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said.

He said they would be housed at an Australian-funded immigration detention centre at Tanjung Pinang while their refugee claims are verified.

The migrants are the remainder of a group of 78 Sri Lankans rescued at sea from their sinking boat by the Australians in Indonesia's search-and-rescue zone last month, as they attempted the dangerous crossing to Australia.

The group had refused to come ashore in Indonesia, saying they wanted to be taken to Australia and would rather die than spend any time in Indonesian detention facilities awaiting processing of their refugee claims.

An initial group of 22 asylum seekers, including 15 who had already been found to be refugees, left the ship last week after receiving assurances they would be quickly resettled abroad.

They say they face persecution at home, where a decades-old civil war pitting ethnic Tamil separatists against majority Sinhalese ended earlier this year.

Indonesia has been a key staging point for migrants taken by people smugglers on the perilous sea journey to Australia.