ALP bid to avoid another Tampa crisis

LABOR'S leadership team has held secret talks amid fears in the party that the Coalition will try to portray it as soft on border security, in a repeat of the Government's successful 2001 election campaign.

Determined to avoid being seen as weak and dithering on border protection, leader Kevin Rudd and senior frontbenchers met on Monday night and agreed they must resolutely stick by the party's immigration policy following the arrival of 83 Sri Lankans in Australian waters last week.

In the 2001 poll, John Howard used the so-called Tampa affair to question Labor's security credentials and seal a third term in government.

News of Monday night's meeting came as Opposition immigration spokesman Tony Burke said a Labor government would insist the 83 men aboard the vessel were processed on Christmas Island.

The group, which includes a 17-year-old boy and two Indonesians who are believed to be crew members, is being held on Christmas Island while the Government negotiates with Indonesia and Nauru about processing their claims for asylum.

The Australian understands their boat has been dubbed SIEV XX - or "suspected illegal entry vessel XX" - by the Government. SIEV X is commonly used to refer to the Indonesian fishing boat that sank en route to Christmas Island in October 2001, killing 353 people, on the eve of the election and sparking the "children overboard" affair.

As Coalition MPs, including West Australian Liberal Judi Moylan, raised concerns about the Government's actions in partyroom meetings yesterday, Mr Burke questioned moves to send the men to another country for processing after the Government spent millions of dollars developing Australia's own offshore processing regime.

The regime includes a $396 million detention centre at Christmas Island and the so-called Pacific Solution, in which Nauru and Manus Island, in Papua New Guinea, process asylum-seekers.

"The Government, having brought people to Christmas Island, the major processing centre for Australia, is refusing to process them there and is looking around the world to try to give millions of dollars to another country to do the same process that could be done right now on Christmas Island," Mr Burke said.

A federal Labor government would "absolutely not" negotiate to send the men to Indonesia or Nauru for processing. "There are Australian standards of decency that involve principles like not locking up children and not detaining people indefinitely that are undeliverable in other countries," Mr Burke said.

Earlier, Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews said he hoped negotiations with Indonesia and Nauru over the fate of the Sri Lankan asylum-seekers would be finalised "some time in the next few days".

Mr Andrews said the men would not be sent to Indonesia unless he received assurances that they would be dealt with under the UN protocols preventing their return if they had reason to fear for their safety.

Mr Andrews said he was aware of statements from Indonesian officials that Jakarta would send the men to Sri Lanka.

"Indonesia won't be an option unless they're prepared to give us an assurance that the people would be dealt with under the UN refugee protocols," Mr Andrews said.

On Christmas Island, the Sri Lankan men pleaded with John Howard not to send them home.

"We fear for life (sic). We want to go to the motherland (mainland) Australia," said one of the men, who said he was too afraid to give his name. Asked what he would say to the Prime Minister if he had a chance, the man said: "We want to stay in Australia, we want asylum, please."

One of the Sri Lankans had been a computer salesman and another had been a taxi driver.

Asked why they wanted to come to Australia, one of the Sri Lankans said: "I like Australia - humanity."

The men have spent their days playing cricket, doing their laundry or sitting in their cabins, which are airconditioned.

Several were ferried to the Christmas Island hospital yesterday afternoon under heavy guard.

Four had completed their interviews with Department of Immigration and Citizenship staff yesterday afternoon and were moved to a separate area of the detention centre where there is no contact with those who have yet to be interviewed.

On Monday, the department removed one of the Sri Lankans - a 17-year-old schoolboy known to his fellow asylum-seekers only as Gobi - from the Christmas Island detention centre in keeping with the recommendations of Human Rights Commissioner Sev Ozdowski in his 2004 inquiry.

Additional reporting: Paige Taylor