Boat-bound Tamils plead for asylum

By Geoff Thompson - Almost 260 Sri Lankans aboard a boat moored in Western Java have made a desperate plea to Australia and other countries to consider their bids for asylum, saying returning to Sri Lanka is no longer an option for Tamils who wish to survive.

The group was intercepted in Indonesian waters on the weekend after a phone call from Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Last night, journalists were allowed to board the vessel and speak to the asylum seekers, who are refusing to leave.

A gangplank creaks as journalists cross from an Indonesian Navy frigate to the 30-metre wooden cargo boat moored alongside it to view for the first time, all together and close-up, a mass of 255 faces drawn with fatigue, fear, hope and disappointment.

Huddled skin to skin they looked up knowing this may be their only real moment in the international spotlight, on which their plea for extraordinary attention would live or die.

As babies and young children slept on the boat's top deck, the fluent English of a young bearded man calling himself Alex was put forward as their best chance of being understood.

"There are people in the camps right now being murdered even today as we speak, as we are sitting comfortably on this boat in the shores of Indonesia, there are still Tamil people in Sri Lanka who are dying every day," Alex said.

"This is why most of these people here have fled from genocide in Sri Lanka and trying to find a future somewhere else.

"First of all I would like to say thank you to Mr Kevin Rudd because he has accepted many refugees in the past, and those refugees can be any one of our brothers or sisters who have found refuge and found safety in Australia.

"And we are thankful to him, but the other thing we would like to tell Mr Rudd is the fact that there are still many more Sri Lankans who need help.

"For you to share intelligence and make sure that this boat does not reach Australian waters - it was very difficult for us to accept because we came until the last point believing that Australia will accept us into their country."

But these asylum seekers are now Indonesia's problem, to be dealt with by organisations such as the International Organisation for Migration - which enjoys Australian funding - and Indonesian authorities seeking solutions which may rely on detention centres built with Australian money.

But for now these Tamils are determined not to leave their boat and have threatened self-harm if forced.

"Ask yourselves one question, if you had no home to go to, if you had no country to live in, if you had no place to go, if you had no country of your own - what would you do and how long would you stay in a boat before you were promised to enter a country that will give you asylum?" Alex said.

"How long will you go? How desperate will you be? Take a look at the picture today, look at my people, we're not only suffering back home, we're suffering here.

"We have no choice, we have no country to go back to, we cannot go back to Sri Lanka."

But Australia was not the first and certain choice for these asylum seekers - simply the cheapest and easiest place to get to, even if it means living in a Malaysian jungle for a month. Something even nine-year-old Brindha understands.

"Please help us and save our lives, we are your children. Please think of us, please, please," she said.

"We have lived in a forest for one month. Please sir, please take us to a country, it's OK if it is not Australia, it's better, if any other country takes us, we can't live in Sri Lanka."

© ABC News