Taliban plead with Australia to take stranded asylum seekers
Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia has pleaded with the Australian Government to accept Afghan asylum seekers stranded aboard a cargo ship.
Moored off the coast of Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, the Tampa has 438 refugees, most of them Afghans, aboard.
Some the asylum seekers have threatened to jump overboard unless Australia grants them entry. Australia has refused.
"According to our information some of the people are very sick. This is a humanitarian crisis, not political.
"We are asking the Australian Government to please help these people," Abdul Rehman Ottaq, director of the Taliban's Consular Department, was quoted by the official Bakhtar News Agency as saying.
"These are poor people. Their problem is not political. Our country is destroyed by drought, years of destruction during the Russian invasion. They should be helped by the world," said Ottaq.
The Taliban also asked the United Nations to provide assistance.
According to the ship's captain, Arne Rinnan, there are at least six very sick people aboard as well as dozens of children and a number of pregnant women.
They were picked up on Monday by the Tampa when the ferry that was illegally carrying them from Indonesia to Australia began to sink.
