Mukomuko, Bengkulu (ANTARA Babel) - Some 120 Sri Lankan immigrants stranded in the waters off the west coast of Sumatra island have refused to return to their social conflict-, civil war-affected homeland, a spokesman said.
"They do not want to return to their country. They want to lead a peaceful and tranquil life by fleeing their country and seeking asylum in other country," Budiman Siboro, an interpreter of the Mukomuko district government, Bengkulu province, said.
With the conflict still affecting their country, they saw what they had done by leaving their country as a proper decision to save their children`s and wives` lives, he said.
"In essence, they want to lead a peaceful and tranquil life without being haunted by a conflict that may threaten their life any time," he said.
The 120 immigrants who mostly worked as fishermen and construction workers in Sri Lanka left their country on March 7, 2013. One of the immigrants is a doctor.
They were stranded in the waters in Air Rami sub-district, Bengkulu province, on Thursday (March 28) after the boat in which they were traveling ran out of diesel oil.
At the beginning the immigrants refused to be evacuated to the coast in the sub-district. But after they were told that the local residents were hospitable they accepted the offer, he said.
"Some 40 of the immigrants had insisted on staying in the boat but then they were ready to be evacuated," he said.
Secretary of the Mukomuko district social service, manpower and transmigration office Mulyadi said the office was waiting for officers of the International Organization for Migration office in Medan, North Sumatra.
While in Bengkulu, their meals will be borne by the local government, he said.
(Reporting by Ferri Arianto, editing by Suharto)
