A GROUP of asylum seekers rescued from a leaky boat has allegedly used aggression to force a merchant vessel them to take them to Australia instead of Singapore.
The merchant vessel, the MV Parsifal, rescued a group of 67 asylum seekers off Java on Tuesday morning following a distress call from the group to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority.
Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare told Sky News the group was "very aggressive" towards the master of the giant car-carrier when it picked them up early Tuesday.
As a result of the aggression, the MV Parsifal's captain decided not to go to Singapore - the ship's planned destination - but to take the group to Christmas Island instead.
The same group of asylum seekers is claiming one person on the boat fell overboard.
Opposition Immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said he was "outraged" by the claims of aggression, accusing the group of "potential piracy".
That group of asylum seekers is now at risk of being sent to Nauru or Manus Island for processing under the Government's new offshore regime.
Mr Clare added that a team of officials would arrive on Manus Island tonight and in Nauru on Friday to prepare for the set up of offshore processing centres.
The Senate will probably spend much of today debating the legislation to reinstate the offshore processing.
Mr Clare said it was critical to get the work done as quickly as possible.
"This will send the quickest message to people smugglers that the game is over," he told the ABC.
One Liberal backbencher says the incident proves some potential refugees are of poor character and shouldn't be given an Australian visa.
"This plays into what we've been saying for a long time that people seeking asylum here ... some of them wouldn't pass the character test,'' West Australian Liberal Don Randall told reporters in Canberra .
"Under the Howard regime we wouldn't have given them a visa.''
Mr Randall said federal Labor created a ''big pull factor'' because too many asylum seekers who reached Australia were given a visa.
"So we attracted a whole range of people who I don't think were necessarily genuine - they were more economic refugees,'' he said, adding that the incident involving the MV Parsifal showed there was a range of people with strange behaviour ''that we want to be very careful about before we do consider them for Australian citizenship''.
"We need to toughen up on those sorts of things.''
Mr Randall denied the rescue demonstrated it would be too tough for the Australian Navy to turn around boats at sea as advocated by the opposition.
"Here we are saying that our navy can't board asylum seeker boats?'' he said.
"What a joke. They're trained for it. Our personnel are quite capable of dealing with a bunch of asylum seekers on a leaky boat.''
Officials head to Nauru and Manus Island
The drama comes as police, government and military officials head to Nauru and Manus Island, ahead of expected offshore processing legislation passing both houses of federal parliament.
The Senate is likely to spend much of Thursday debating legislation to reinstate offshore processing on the islands, with the Greens expected to continue their opposition to the move.
An RAAF aircraft will leave Canberra for Nauru and Manus Island around 10am (AEST) on Thursday, in preparation for setting up offshore processing centres there.
On board will be a team of officials and a film crew, who will prepare videos to discourage asylum seekers coming to Australia by boat, ABC radio reported.
The clips will be called Australia by Boat, No Advantage, and will be distributed through social media.
Draft laws which allow the government to reinstate processing centres on Nauru and Manus Island in Papua New Guinea passed the House of Representatives before question time on Wednesday.
The legislation is expected to pass the Senate on Thursday
www.perthnow.com.au/news/nsw/offshore-asylum-laws-through-parliament-ng-e3a76c7c7d0831e7700445ab32169ef6
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