KARUNA SHINSHO, CNN ANCHOR, ASIA TONIGHT: Well, Mr. Howard's new policy has not discouraged thousands of others refugees from trying to reach Australia. Rosemarie Church (ph) reports on one group in Indonesia ready to trust their fate to the sea.</s>CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On the Indonesian island of Lumbuk, the refugees await the chance to try their own luck. Hoping to start a new life in Australia, these people from Afghanistan, Iraq and Iraq are straining relations between Canberra and Jakarta. Australia is criticizing Indonesia for allowing refugees to use their territory as a stop over in their journey to Australian shores. For their part, Indonesian police detained these 250 refugees on Lumbuk and more than two thousand nationwide before they could head for Australia. However, with its long stretches of deserted coastline and well- organized smuggling gangs, Indonesia says the deck is stacked against its efforts to stop the migration. More than 1500 refugees have landed on Australia's northern coast in the past two weeks. And more than 900 are believed to be on route across the Indian Ocean. It's a situation that does not sit well with many Australian officials, who are defending the country's refusal to allow in the more than 400 asylum-seekers aboard the Norwegian "Tampa."</s>JOHN HOWARD, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: Every nation has the right effectively control its borders and to decide who comes here and under what circumstances, and Australia has no intention of surrendering or compromising that right.</s>WINSTON CRANE, AUSTRALIAN PARLIAMENT MEMBER: There's a big principle at stake here: Australia cannot become a dumping ground for refugees in the world, and that's what's been done to us.</s>CHURCH: No matter what the resolution of the standoff over the "Tampa," Australia's struggle with the refugee issue is likely to go on. Rosemarie Church, CNN.
Thousands of Refugees Still on Route to Australia