Fed: Boat capatin says asylum seekers getting sicker = 2

AAP General News (Australia)
08-28-2001
Fed: Boat capatin says asylum seekers getting sicker = 2

Prime Minister JOHN HOWARD and other ministers are meeting in Canberra this morning
to decide Australia's next step in the growing crisis.

Mr RINNAN says he's under instruction from his Norwegian shipping company to remain
anchored off Australia's north west coast.

The captain says he was pressured into directing his boat towards Christmas Island
rather than an Indonesian port when several asylum seekers threatened to jump overboard.

The government says international law obliged the ship to take the passengers to the
nearest feasible disembarkation point, which would be the Indonesian port of Merak, near
Jakarta.

AAP RTV jb/daw/klw/hn

KEYWORD: BOAT CAPTAIN 2 CANBERRA (REOPENS)

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