Australian Navy Takes Asylum-Seekers back to Indonesia

The Australian navy has taken 44 asylum-seekers rescued at sea back to Indonesia, an official said Friday, days before Australia's new premier visits the country for talks on his controversial boatpeople policy.

However, the rescue was carried out under an existing agreement between Jakarta and Canberra and not in the framework of Prime Minister Tony Abbott's new tow-back policy.

The boat carrying 40 male adults and four children made a distress call Thursday, said rescue official Suyatno, who goes by one name, with reports saying the vessel was still in Indonesian waters heading towards Australia's Christmas Island.

"We wouldn't have been able to get our boats out there on time, so we agreed the Australians would conduct the rescue," said Suyatno, head of search and rescue in the capital Jakarta.

Australian authorities alerted Indonesia's rescue agency just after midnight Thursday, and the Australian navy vessel HMAS Ballarat was given permission by local authorities to enter Indonesian waters.

It conducted the rescue of 44 asylum-seekers, from Pakistan, Iran and Myanmar, and two Indonesian crew, who were then taken close to Indonesia before being transferred to an Indonesian vessel late Thursday.

Abbott, who took power this month after winning national polls, has ordered a military-led border protection plan to deter boatpeople which will see vessels turned back when it is safe to do so.

But Thursday's rescue followed a standard procedure already agreed between the two countries to allow Australian help in rescuing foundering boats even when they are outside Australian waters.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told his Australian counterpart Julie Bishop on the sidelines of the U.N. this week that Jakarta "cannot accept any Australian policy that would, in nature, violate sovereignty".

Abbott and Bishop will make a two-day visit to Indonesia on Monday and are expected to discuss his controversial policies.

Australia has struggled to manage the stream of asylum-seekers arriving on rickety, overloaded fishing boats with hundreds dying on the risky journey in recent years.