Three Vietnamese asylum seekers detained after Australian Navy intervention, Voice Australia group says
Updated
A group of 46 Vietnamese asylum seekers who almost made it to Australia by boat have been flown home, arriving on Sunday afternoon, according to a Vietnamese community group in Australia.
"The locals told me they saw them taken one by one into the police station for questioning," Trung Doan, secretary of Voice Australia said.
"They had lost weight, they looked gaunt and very sad."
Mr Doan said he had been told the group, which included men, women and two babies, was interviewed on an Australian Navy ship and then taken to an on-land airstrip, flown to Ho Chi Minh City and transferred overland to Binh Thuan Province — the starting point for their journey by boat to Australia.
Forty-three of the asylum seekers were released by local police, but two men and one woman were driven in a police vehicle to a provincial detention centre, according to Mr Doan.
The asylum seeker boat was spotted off Dampier in Western Australia at first light on July 20.
Since then, the Prime Minister, the Immigration Minister and the Immigration Department have refused to provide information, saying they do not comment on operational matters.
Mr Doan said he was told when the asylum seekers were interviewed by Australian authorities at sea, they were assured that they should feel at ease, because what they said would not be given to Vietnamese authorities.
But according to relatives, the information was then passed on, he said.
"That is contrary to the promise that the Australian authorities gave to these people when the interview started," Mr Doan said.
The asylum seekers were mainly fishermen who had pooled their money to buy a boat and spent around three weeks at sea before being intercepted, according to Mr Doan.
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