Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Cash for the question. Firstly, I advise her that the people on the boat are not suspected asylum seekers; they have all sought asylum. They sought asylum when they boarded the Oceanic Viking after the rescue at sea. As the senator would know, we assisted the Indonesians by rescuing the asylum seekers in the Indonesian search and rescue zone, and under international law we transported them to Indonesia. There have been no inducements offered to persons to disembark from the Oceanic Viking. As part of the agreement between Indonesian officials and Australian officials, there was a process agreed to determine the means by which we would disembark the passengers once they agreed to disembark. We made it clear that they would not be disembarking in Australia, as was their wish, but that they would be disembarking in Indonesia. The agreement with the Indonesian government provided for their disembarkation, their assessment by the UNHCR as to their refugee status and agreements around the time frames and conditions which would be applied to those persons. Those arrangements were codified in a document that was provided to the people on the boat.