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CNN Saturday Morning News

Hundreds of Refugees Hope for Asylum

Aired September 01, 2001 - 07:06   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: There is new hope now for hundreds of refugees that have been stranded for six days on the sweltering deck of a freighter off the Australian coast.

CNN's Tom Mintier reports on the deal that broke a diplomatic deadlock over the asylum-seekers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM MINTIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The arrangement came from the Australian government, a deal that would allow the asylum-seekers to move to the next step, land.

JOHN HOWARD, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: An agreement has been reached so that all of the people on board in the Tampa can be processed in third countries, not in Australia or in an Australian territory, to have their claims for refugee status determined and then dealt with under the normal processes applying to refugees around the world.

MINTIER: The agreement would allow at least 150 of the boat people, mostly women and children, to be moved to New Zealand to determine if they are bona fide refugees. The rest would be transferred for similar assessment to the island nation of Naru.

The government of Australia has promised to pay Naru for the help.

Once these assessments have been completed, the boat people, who have been aboard a Norwegian container ship since last weekend, will be resettled in countries including Australia.

The deal should end a week that has seen significant international pressure brought against Australia to resolve the situation. At first there was a plan to relocate the asylum-seekers to East Timor, under the protection of the United Nations, for processing. That did not work out. Under the current plan, Australia would work closely with the International Organization for Migration, or IOM, and the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, to manage the operation and provide counseling and assistance to the people from the ship.

What has not yet been established is how all this, or, more importantly, where, this intermediate step will take place. The Norwegian ship owners say it cannot sail with the asylum seekers on the deck. That would probably mean the Australian navy taking them off the freighter and somehow, somewhere, getting them onto planes to fly to New Zealand and Naru.

(on camera): While the deal may have been worked out, the details still remain to be solved, like what airport might the would- be asylum-seekers be flown out of? -- something that has been a sticking point all along.

Tom Mintier, CNN, Christmas Island.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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