Indonesia must sign refugee convention: Greens

The Greens say doubts about the refugee processing system in Indonesia should prompt the Federal Government to take in 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers on board the Oceanic Viking.


There are reports the group may have spent the past five years in Indonesia and had already been accepted as refugees.


The Opposition says the news demolishes the Government's argument that a surge in boat arrivals is due to the recent end of the civil war in Sr Lanka.


Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young says Australia needs to urge Indonesia to sign onto the United Nations refugee convention.


"What it does indicate is that the UNHCR processing in Indonesia, which is not a signatory to the refugee convention, is simply not working," she said.


"People are saying that they have been given refugee status. Five years later they are still languishing in detention."


ABC News