A group of 15 illegal Indonesian immigrants discovered on a remote Australian island last Thursday will be returned home, the Australian government said on Monday.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the six men and nine women told authorities they paid a people smuggler up to A$1,000 ($760) each to bring them to Australia but were left stranded on Ashmore Reef, 840 km (525 miles) west of the country's northern tip.
This is the third group of would-be refugees to reach Australian territory since the conservative government cracked down hard on boat-people in 2001, deploying the navy to intercept and divert boats to nearby Pacific islands.
"The people in this group were clearly the victims of an unscrupulous people smuggler who promised to take them to Australia where they could get work apparently picking fruit in orchards," Downer told parliament.
"Those people are now being transported to Christmas Island and they will, from there, be returned to Indonesia, either by sea or by air."
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