JAKARTA: Indonesian and Australian officials confirmed on Monday that they had found a boat feared to have gone missing carrying a group of Afghan citizens near Christmas Island in Australia. The officials told Bikyanews.com that the asylum seekers are now being taken by Australian immigration officials for health, security and identity checks. “We are going through all the proper procedures for those on the boat and hope to make certain we have their identities before making the next step,” an Australian immigration officer in Jakarta said, not adding what that next step would be. Officials said the boat, which was carrying Afghan Hazaras, had gone missing during a bout of poor weather between Australia and Australia. Passengers on the vessel had endured rough monsoonal weather after leaving Indonesia days ago. The asylum seekers are likely to be forced to return to their native country, as Australia has been returning a number of asylum seekers in recent months, including a group of Sri Lankans late last year despite calls by human rights organizations. Australia's Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said the men were “involuntarily" returned to Colombo on a charter flight in November. It brought to 186 the number of Sri Lankan asylum seekers the government has sent home since it embraced its tough new immigration policies in mid-August. Bowen said the men raised no issues that engaged Australia's international obligations. “Without a valid visa they had no legal right to remain in Australia and were removed at the earliest opportunity," Bowen said in a statement on Thursday. Australia would continue to regularly transfer asylum seekers to Nauru and would shortly start sending people to Manus Island too, the minister said. “And where appropriate, the government will certainly continue to return people where they do not engage Australia's international obligations," he said. Bikyanews.com
