Delhi: The Indian government appears likely to only accept the return of Indian nationals among the 157 Tamil asylum seekers who have been held on the high seas by Australian customs officials since late June.
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison, along with Lieutenant-General Angus Campbell, met with India’s Home Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in Delhi on Tuesday to request that India accept all 157 people who were intercepted by Australian authorities on a ship that departed from the Indian territory of Puducherry around June 13...
...in an apparent rebuff to Australia’s request, India only agreed to send its consular officials on board the Australian customs vessel to determine who, if any, among the asylum seekers is of Indian origin.
The Indian government has so far refused to accept that any of those on board are Indians, maintaining that the asylum seekers are all of Sri Lankan origin.
Indian media reports on Tuesday said that Mr Morrison had advised the Indian government that some of the asylum seekers may be Indian because the ship that was intercepted by Australia was flying the Indian tricolour.
“These people could also be from Sri Lanka or any other Asian country,” said one government official quoted by The Indian Express newspaper. “Just because they had an Indian national flag atop their boat does not prove their nationality. They only look Indian. We have asked Australia now for consular access to these people.”
Describing Mr Morrison as Australia’s “embattled Immigration Minister”, India’s biggest-selling English daily, The Times of India, reported that Australia had earlier attempted to convince Sri Lanka to accept the 157 asylum seekers “but Colombo blew them away”...
http://www.theage.com.au/world/delhi-offers-little-comfort-to-morrisons-boat-mis...