Australia lashed over boat people

The Kurds say they are genuine refugees

The UN refugee agency has accused Australia of violating its obligation to refugees by turning away 14 asylum-seekers before they could be assessed.

The group of Turkish Kurds is now in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, after Australia's navy towed their fishing-boat away from its coast last week.

"Denial of access... is a breach of... obligations under international law," said a UN spokesman in Geneva.

He also urged Indonesia not to deport the Kurds, who say they are refugees.

We are very concerned about the way that Australia handled the case UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski

"We are very concerned about the way that Australia handled the case," said Kris Janowski for the UN's High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Tuesday.

He said that Australia had not allowed the 14 access to the agency for it to decide whether they had the right to claim asylum under the 1951 Refugee Convention, to which Australia is a signatory.

The Australian authorities towed the Kurds' boat out to sea four days after they tried to land on the northern island of Melville.

The navy acted under a law only enacted last week which precludes boat people from applying for asylum if they land on the northern islands.

Australia's policies towards asylum-seekers who arrive illegally have become among the toughest in the developed world since it emerged that organised gangs were using Indonesia as a stepping-stone for smuggling illegal migrants from the Middle East and South Asia onto its territory.

However, Canberra does offer thousands of annual resettlement places to people recognised as genuine refugees elsewhere.

Jakarta talks

The UNHCR, which plans to send an "official communication" to the Australian foreign ministry, also called on Indonesia not to deport the asylum-seekers under the spirit of international law even though Jakarta is not a signatory to the 1951 convention.

Following its ejection from Australian waters, the Kurds' boat finally beached in Indonesia's Molucca Islands from which they were flown to Jakarta after being detained by local police.

An immigration spokesman in the Indonesian capital, Ade Dahlan, told Reuters news agency that consultations would be held with the UNHCR and others about the Kurds' fate.

Earlier, an Indonesian police official in the Moluccas had described the state of the asylum-seekers' health as "poor".