KARUNA SHINSHO, CNN ANCHOR: More than 400 refugees stuck on a ship in Australian waters are heading to Papua New Guinea. Australian troops finished transferring the mainly Afghan asylum seekers from a Norwegian cargo ship to a military transport vessel. The international tangle over the refugees is yet to be sorted out. Tom Mintier has more.</s>TOM MINTIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With the precision of a space station docking, the two large ships came together off the coast of Christmas Island, the Norwegian container ship Tampa, with more than 400 would-be asylum seekers on board, made most of the moves. The Australian navy ship Manoora, a troop transport vessel, waited for its passengers. It would take nearly six hours to complete the transfer and more than six hours to go to Papua New Guinea. The meeting, in the Indian Ocean, came only after civil rights lawyers agreed to it inside this federal courtroom in Melbourne.</s>JULIAN BURNSIDE, CIVIL LIBERTIES LAWYER: Our part, our overriding concern, is to ensure that the physical conditions of the rescueees will be alleviated as early as possible, and this arrangement seems to secure that result without compromising the legal rights we seek to enforce.</s>MINTIER: The agreement comes with a condition: If the government of Australia ends up losing the court case, the military transport ship must turn around and head to Australian waters once again, to provide asylum to its passengers. While Papua New Guinea is the halfway point, the ultimate destination will be the island state of Nauru and New Zealand. Both locations will become processing centers for the asylum seekers. The transfer off the shores of Christmas Island ends a week-long standoff where the government of Australian Prime Minister John Howard refused to allow the boat people to land. During the week-long voyage, the International Organization for Migration, or IOM, will gather information from the asylum seekers necessary for processing. Tom Mintier, CNN, Christmas Island.
Refugees in Australian Waters Head to Papua New Guinea