Australia defends immigration policy after boat crisis

Sydney, Australia (Agencies): The government stood by its tough immigration policy on Monday, a year after it sparked international outrage by turning away a Norwegian cargo ship carrying hundreds of asylum seekers rescued from a sinking ferry.

But human rights groups and refugee advocates condemned the policy as the death knell of Australia's reputation as a caring nation.

"The actions of the federal government in relation to the (freighter ship MV) Tampa and the subsequent creation of damaging myths about asylum seekers has been one of the most shameful episodes in Australia's history," the Coalition for the Reform of Refugee Policy said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Australia's conservative government announced plans on Monday to impose tougher penalties on people smugglers, as the nation marked the first anniversary of its tough policy on asylum seekers.

Justice and Customs Minister Chris Ellison said the government would soon introduce new people-smuggling offenses carrying maximum terms of 10 years in jail in a further move to halt illegal immigration.

The new laws will target people-smuggling from Australia and the use of Australia as a transit point for illegal immigrants, Ellison said in a statement.

In the southern city of Melbourne, refugee supporters wearing black armbands placed a cardboard coffin labeled "RIP compassion" in front of an immigration office.

On Aug. 26, 2001, the MV Tampa rescued 434 people from a dilapidated Indonesian ferry sinking off the remote Australian outpost of Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean.

Most of them were Afghan and Iraqi asylum seekers.

The asylum seekers demanded Capt. Arne Rinnan take them to Australia, but Prime Minister John Howard refused the Tampa permission to land at Christmas Island and claimed the asylum seekers were the responsibility of Indonesia and Norway.

When Rinnan attempted to enter Australian waters, the government ordered armed commandos to board the ship and turn it around.

After days spent squatting on the deck of the Tampa in searing heat while the government decided their fate, most of the asylum seekers were taken by navy ship to the tiny Pacific island state of Nauru, which had agreed to house them while their applications for refugee status were processed.

Australia's actions were condemned by human rights groups around the world. But the government was unapologetic Monday, saying the incident had helped stem the tide of asylum seekers coming to Australia illegally by boat.

In another development, three Indonesians went on trial on Monday in Perth charged with trying lo smuggle 219 illegal immigrants into Australia last year.

The men, Jacky Lerebulan, Geri Bebri Iraratu and Ganjang, who uses only one name, face maximum sentences of 20 years if convicted in Perth District Court.

They are churned with trying to smuggle in the asylum seekers last October. The nationalities of the asylum seekers weren't immediately known.