Outspoken Liberal MP Wilson Tuckey has flagged the possibility of using the military to forcibly move 78 asylum seekers off an Australian Customs vessel moored off an Indonesia island.
The government has not ruled out using force to disembark the group of Sri Lankans who are refusing to leave the Oceanic Viking.
Some reportedly have threatened to kill themselves if forced ashore at Bintan island.
Mr Tuckey upped the ante on Thursday morning by suggesting the prime minister could send in the army.
"He can ask the army to go up there and take those people off," he told reporters in Canberra.
"He can send that vessel back."
Opposition immigration spokeswoman Sharman Stone said the stand-off was hurting Australia's relations with Indonesia.
"It (is) going to very soon, if not now, seriously stress that relationship," she told reporters.
"This is a serious regional issue in terms of co-operation and long-term collaboration."
Indonesia said on Wednesday it will not force the asylum seekers to disembark from the Australian Customs ship and into a detention centre.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has not ruled out the use of force to offload the 78 people, including five women and five children, who have spent their 10th day aboard the Oceanic Viking anchored off the Indonesian island of Bintan.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa left a resolution of the crisis up to the Australian government, saying Indonesia would violate international laws if it forced the asylum seekers off the boat.
"It's their choice to leave the boat concerned, and we are not in a position to force them off the boat," he told ABC TV on Wednesday night.
"In the final analysis, if they refuse to leave the boat, then this is a fact that the Australian government must take into account."
But Indonesia would not set a deadline on a resolution to the crisis, Mr Natalegawa said.
Front page
RSS Feed