Asylum-seekers still in legal limbo

CHRISTMAS ISLAND, Australia (CNN) -- Australia is waiting on a legal ruling before attempting to move hundreds of mainly Afghan asylum-seekers off a vessel near its coast.

A Norwegian cargo vessel, MV Tampa, has been stranded off Christmas Island for more than a week, while John Howard's government decides what to do with the estimated 460 refugees from Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

An Australian Navy ship HMAS Manoora is waiting to transport the refugees to Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea, north of Australia, before flying them to New Zealand or the Pacific island of Nauru, where their applications for political asylum would be processed.

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If they win asylum, the refugees will be redirected to third countries for resettlement, including Australia. The United Nations Human Rights Commission has questioned such a solution.

But a Federal Court in Melbourne is currently listening to an application made by civil liberties groups to keep the asylum-seekers in Australia. The court has been adjourned until Monday.

The court has to decide whether the refugees are in a so-called "migration zone" which would allow them to legally migrate to shore. If they did, there is the question of whether their claims would supersede other asylum requests.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Mary Robinson called for a speedy end to the situation.

"We are dealing with human rights here and it is unacceptable that these people remain stranded on the ship, even if medicines and food were supplied to them," she told Reuters at the U.N. conference on racism in South Africa.

Norway, where the vessel is registered, has become increasingly critical of Australia's refusal to accept the asylum-seekers.

Its foreign minister Thorbjoern Jagland branded the week-long episode as "inhumane."

An Australian military guard has been put on the vessel to prevent anyone stepping foot on Australian soil, and triggering a possible flow of refugees from nearby Indonesia and Malaysia.

"It could be dramatic, we don't know how these refugees will react," he was reported by Reuters as telling Norway's NRK radio.

"The best solution would be to let the people land on Christmas Island."

Helicopters ferried food and blankets to the refugees on Sunday, but an offer by Virgin Atlantic Airway's CEO Richard Branson to fly them to New Zealand was turned down by the Australian government on Sunday.

The diplomatic crisis was sparked last Sunday when MV Tampa rescued the refugees after their Indonesian vessel began to sink.

The group then forced the ship's skipper to head for Australian waters, but the passengers' fate was thrown into limbo when Australia refused to let the ship dock.

New Zealand has agreed to process 150 of those aboard the Tampa, including family groups that include women and children.

An UNHCR statement said it still favours allowing the asylum-seekers to disembark temporarily on Christmas Island. The agency said that would be "the most logical and humane" solution.

Many of the refugees have fled from war-ravaged conditions worsened by poverty and famine.