The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) officers got the permission from the Indonesia government to interview 44 Australia-bound Sri Lankan asylum seekers and collect their data, after the authorities allowed them to temporarily disembark their stranded boat, Sri Lankan local media reported on Monday.

The group of asylum seekers last Saturday were allowed to come ashore and stay at a military tent near beach, after a tense stand-off for over a week in their stranded boat in Lhoknga Coast in Indonesia.

The report cited what an Indonesian official said that, the asylum seekers and their Indian-flagged boat have to go back to international waters after the damaged boat has been repaired, continuing their trip with 7 tons of fuel given by the Indonesia government.

Meanwhile, UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) are still lobbying the Aceh authorities to move the 44 asylum seekers, consisting of 20 men, 14 women including a pregnant woman and nine children to a detention center in the province.

Every year many asylum-seeker boats still attempt to reach Australia, though at a much lower rate than at the peak of boat arrivals in 2011 and 2012, but most are intercepted and forced back before they reach Australian territorial waters.

(Xinhua)