Lankans insist on reaching NZ

Scores of Sri Lankan asylum seekers who were refused entry to New Zealand after being intercepted in Indonesia are now refusing to leave their boat, officials said Tuesday.

The group of 87 people, including about five children, were demanding they be allowed to continue their journey to New Zealand.

They intend to seek protection as refugees, an Indonesian official working on the case told AFP.

They are refusing to cooperate with Indonesian authorities who are trying to convince them to leave their steel-hulled boat, currently moored off the port of Bintan Island, near Singapore.

"The 87 Sri Lankan migrants have refused to be placed at the immigration detention centre in Tanjung Pinang," said local human rights official I Gede Widiarta, referring to the main town on Bintan.

"All of them are still in the boat, they insist on reaching New Zealand." AFP