Scores of asylum-seekers have come ashore in eastern Indonesia after their boat was intercepted by the Australian navy and pushed into Indonesian waters as they headed for New Zealand, police say.
The 65 migrants from Bangladesh, Myanmar and Sri Lanka were spotted by the Australians, said Hidayat, an Indonesian police official on Rote Island in the east of the archipelago.
"According to their testimony, they were pushed back by the Australian navy and immigration after they were interrogated," said the official on Monday, who like many Indonesians goes by one name. "They said they were on their way to New Zealand."
He said they were spotted by local residents on Sunday near a beach after their boat sank.
The new arrivals in Indonesia come as Southeast Asia is gripped by a human-trafficking crisis, which has seen thousands of migrants come ashore after a Thai crackdown threw the illicit trade into chaos.
Around 1800 Rohingya from Myanmar as well as Bangladeshis have landed in Indonesia's Aceh province in the past month, and others have landed in Malaysia and Thailand.
AFP