Australian Navy 'rescues 230 asylum seekers'

CANBERRA, Australia (CNN) -- The Australian Navy rescued about 230 asylum seekers from their sinking vessel off Australia's Christmas Island, Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock said Tuesday.

The boat, the latest in a series of attempts by illegal immigrants to reach Australian shores from Indonesia, was moored off the island to Australia's northwest when it began to take in water.

"Yesterday it was found to be unseaworthy and as a consequence the 229 passengers and five crew were transferred to the [Navy frigate] HMAS Warramunga," Ruddock told reporters.

Ruddock said the boat people would be moved to Christmas Island and an announcement about their fate made soon.

He said that the asylum seekers would be processed on the island but they would not be coming to the Australian mainland.

Another boat carrying 224 asylum seekers had been sent back to Indonesian waters, he said.

It had been moored near Ashmore Reef, off Australia's north coast for almost 10 days.

Tough stance

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The Australian government has been criticized by humanitarian groups for maintaining a tough stance against accepting illegal immigrants in the last few months.

Since August, it has endeavored to intercept and then turn back boatloads of would-be refugees or sent them to other Pacific nations to have their applications for refugee status processed.

The tragic sinking of an overcrowded Indonesian vessel in the Java Sea this month, in which more than 350 asylum seekers drowned, appears to have done little to weaken the government's position.

Recent arrivals have been sent to Papua New Guinea or the Pacific nation of Nauru for processing and temporary accommodation in Australian funded facilities.

Other nations including Fiji, Kiribati and Palau have also been approached to accept boat people.

The Australian government says that if it begins to accept asylum seekers outside of its yearly refugee intake, more will attempt to reach its shores and people smuggling operations will intensify.

Court case

Meanwhile, the fate of asylum seekers sent to Nauru by the Australian government is back before the courts after a High Court judge granted the group's civil rights lawyer the right to seek to appeal a ruling by a lower court on the issue.

That Federal Court backed a government decision to block a group of asylum seekers from entering Australian territory.

The asylum seekers had been rescued from a sinking ferry in international waters near Indonesia by a Norwegian freighter, MS Tampa, and taken to Christmas Island.

But the government refused to let the asylum seekers disembark, sending troops onto the ship prevent them from making landfall.

A deal was eventually brokered sending the asylum seekers to Nauru and New Zealand via Papua New Guinea.