(13 Nov 2009) SHOTLIST :
1. Wide of Oceanic Viking vessel
2. Close up of Oceanic Viking
3. Boat being lowered into the sea
4. People onboard the boat
5. Boat heading towards ferry
6. Boat alongside ferry
7. Bus carrying Sri Lankan asylum seekers entering temporary shelter compound
8. Media waiting to film and photograph the Sri Lankan asylum seekers
9. Mid of Sri Lankan asylum seekers getting off bus
10. Sri Lankan asylum seekers sitting inside building
11. Close of asylum seekers
12. SOUNDBITE: (Indonesian) Sujatmiko, Indonesian diplomat:
"There were 6 people who joined at the last minute to make the total number of immigrants who pulled out, 22 people."
13. Exterior of temporary shelter
STORYLINE:
Twenty-two of 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers disembarked from an Australian customs ship on Friday, after spending over three weeks moored off Indonesia's coast.
Indonesian authorities said that the asylum seekers, who had been refusing to leave the Oceanic Viking, would be taken to temporary shelters, where they would undergo medical and administrative checks by officials from the Indonesian Immigration service.
Officials said that the asylum seekers would be held at the shelters for 4 weeks before being moved to Australia, after the Australian government reportedly agreed to resettle all the people within 3 weeks.
There was no information given on the other 56 people still onboard the Oceanic Viking, although it is thought they will also disembark the ship in the near future.
Disagreements between the Australian and Indonesian government over who had responsibility for the people led to the long delay in dealing with the issue.
The 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers all ethnic Tamils, including women and children, were found drifting in a wooden boat with a broken engine in international waters near Indonesia, when they were picked up by the Australian Customs Service ship.
Australia had argued that the migrants were Indonesia's responsibility according to the laws of the sea.
The asylum seekers had then been taken to Bintan Island in Indonesia to be assessed under United Nations refugee rules at an immigration detention centre, but the local government would not allow the Sri Lankans to disembark, and the Indonesian government refused to physically move the Sri Lankans off the boat.
The Sri Lankans are the latest in a flood of thousands of people from war-torn countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq seeking better futures in Australia, but arriving in Indonesia.
Indonesia is a staging point for human traffickers who have been known to charge 15-thousand US dollars per person for the treacherous journey, often made on boats unfit for the rough seas, to isolated Christmas Island, an Australian territory.
The cash-strapped Indonesian government has limited resources for dealing with the influx of new arrivals and relies heavily on assistance from the United Nations and International Organisation for Migration to feed and shelter them.
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