New Zealand is unlikely to offer refuge to 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers plucked from a stricken boat, Immigration Minister Jonathan Coleman said today.
Australian authorities have been trying for three weeks to persuade the asylum seekers to leave customs vessel Oceanic Viking, which picked them up, and enter a detention centre on the Indonesian island of Bintan.
They have expressed concerns about being shut up in camps there for years, but there have been reports Australia is negotiating with Indonesian authorities for any asylum claims to be processed faster and resettlement fast-tracked.
Those found to be refugees could go to New Zealand, Canada, or Australia, with Tamils already deemed refugees to be resettled first.
Dr Coleman confirmed there had been informal discussions with Australia, but New Zealand did not believe "an ad hoc approach dealing with individual cases like the Oceanic Viking" would send the right message.
There was an international agreement on dealing with people smuggling and boat people which emphasised prevention, interception and deterrence, Dr Coleman said.
"We're wary of rewarding actions that seek to jump the queue for entry to New Zealand. Sending the wrong message won't help solve similar situations that may arise in the near future," he said.
"For that reason the New Zealand Government would be unlikely to offer settlement to asylum seekers aboard the Oceanic Viking."
Green MP Keith Locke said he was disappointed by Dr Coleman's statement.
"It is likely that Australia will continue to process Sri Lankan boat people, and accept some. It would be good for New Zealand, as a good neighbour, to share the load," Mr Locke said
"I don't agree with Dr Coleman that accepting Sri Lankan boat people would be rewarding those `jumping the queue'. Risking one's life on a boat on the open sea is not done lightly. It shows how desperate these people are not to be returned to Sri Lanka."
Mr Locke said taking some of these people in would show New Zealand was a caring nation as it was in 2001 when it volunteered to take some of the Afghan refugees off the Tampa.