The captain of the Norwegian cargo ship, the Tampa, disregarded Australian orders and proceeded to head for Christmas Island as hundreds of boat people on board went on a hunger strike and threatened to jump overboard if Australia continued to refuse them entry.

"The government was left with no alternative but to instruct the chief of the Australian Defense Force to arrange for defense personnel to board and secure the vessel," Australian Prime Minister John Howard said in a parliamentary debate.

"Every nation has the right to effectively control its borders and decide who comes here and under what circumstances," he added.

Prime Minister Howard said that under international law the ship was required to return to the nearest port to where the asylum seekers were picked up. In this case, the Indonesian port of Merak.

Norway says the refugees are Australia's problem. Both Indonesia and Norway have also refused to accept them.

The international dispute began Monday when the Norwegian tanker, en route to Singapore, rescued 438 refugees, mainly from Afghanistan, from a sinking Indonesian boat that was carrying them illegally from Indonesia to Australia's Christmas Island.

Located some 1,800 kilometers west of Australia's northwest coast, Christmas Island is a tiny 24-kilometer long island, with a population of only 1,500. It has become a popular, and often easy, destination for Indonesia smugglers to unload their "human cargo".

Australian Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock said in a recent statement that Australia is an increasingly popular destination for refugees and illegal immigrants because it grants visas to a higher percentage of applicants than its Asian neighbors and looks after refugees better once they have been allowed to stay.

Makeshift detention centers have been set up for those boat people who have successfully made it to the island, where they undergo an assessment process to establish if they have a legitimate reason for staying in Australia. If denied, refugees can appeal the decision or face deportation.

Thousands of refugees, mostly from the Middle East, arrive in Australia each year. They make their way to Indonesia and pay large sums of money to smugglers to ship them to Australia.

According to the Australian Department of Immigration, 59 boats were intercepted between December 1999 and January 2001, carrying close to 4,000 people. This is more than the combined total of illegal boat arrivals in the last three years.

Only two weeks earlier, a leaky wooden fishing boat from Indonesia carrying 348 asylum seekers, mainly from Iraq and Afghanistan, arrived at Christmas Island. The human cargo was the second largest ever to arrive in Australia.

In the current situation, the Australian public has generally shown little sympathy for the plight of the boat people and has supported the government's handling of the situation. In a recent news poll conducted by Australia's Seven News, 93% of some several thousand people polled said it was right to refuse entry to the ship carrying asylum-seekers, while 7% disagreed.

There are, however, some voices that have expressed concern for the fate of the refugees.

"It's harsh, it's inhuman, and it's going to create a rising resentment with other governments, as well as many people who are more humanitarian within the Australian community," said Greens Senator Bob Brown.

Senator Andrew Bartlett, the Australian Democrats spokesperson for Immigration said in a statement that the government's decision is in direct contravention of the United Nations Refugee Convention.

The Senator was referring to the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, which is designed to protect people who flee their countries because of persecution or conflict.

"If they [the Australian government] really know what is going on in that country [Afghanistan] and what's been going on for the past twenty-three years, I'm sure they would show sympathy," said Afghanistan's Honorary Consul to Australia in a television interview.

Australia has offered some humanitarian assistance, delivering needed food, medical supplies and medical attention, but remains vigilant in forcing the tanker back into international waters.

"It remains our very strong determination not to allow this vessel to land in Australia," Prime Minister John Howard said.

The Prime Minister's position so far remains unchanged. He believes Australia has no responsibility to accept the Afghan refugees and wants the vessel to return to international waters and the refugees returned to Indonesia.

Australia will continue to discuss the matter with Norway and Indonesia