A crewmember of the Norwegian freighter adrift in the Indian Ocean has said that the asylum seekers on board have gone on hunger strike. The freighter, the Tampa, picked up hundreds of mainly Afghan asylum seekers whose boat was sinking, but soon found itself unwanted, as both Indonesia and Australia refused to take the illegal immigrants.
The 434 asylum seekers were given food and medical treatment after boarding the freighter. Some are said to be suffering dysentery, fatigue, scabies and dehydration after days at sea. But as soon as they heard Australia had refused permission to dock, they launched a hunger strike and refused treatment.
"As soon as they were told they had been refused entry by Australia they all went on a hunger strike. They are refusing to accept any food, water and medicine," the ship's chief mate Chris Maltau said.
Indonesia, the nearest country when they were picked up, and Norway have also refused to accept the group, who entered the freighter's bridge and demanded the captain take them to Australia's Christmas Island, south of the Indonesian island of Java.
At a news conference, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said that the matter was something to be resolved by the governments of Indonesia and Norway.
In a separate development, Italy's coastguard has said that it had taken into custody more than 350 illegal immigrants who had landed on the southern tip of the country. Coastguard officials said that the fishing boat left Turkey five days ago carrying 354 immigrants.
Most of the immigrants are Kurds, but there are also some from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The boat's eleven crew, all Turks, was arrested and charged with smuggling immigrants.
