New Zealand shuts door on Sri Lankan boatpeople

New Zealand has refused entry to a boat load of Sri Lankan asylum seekers, saying it would only open the door to "millions of others" and reward people smugglers. A boat containing about 85 Sri Lankans who said they were heading to New Zealand was detained in Indonesian waters over the weekend. The refugees were waving New Zealand flags and holding signs that read "Our future life is in New Zealand" and "We like to go to New Zealand". However, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key Tuesday said the Sri Lankan boatpeople were not welcome and that was not negotiable. "Once you start taking people in the form of people smugglers, you are rewarding the bad guys. You are rewarding people who are putting others' lives at risk," he told TV3's Firstline programme, adding there was no guarantee the Sri Lankans were refugees. Key said New Zealand took in 750 refugees a year and would not accept anyone who did not follow the normal channels. "There are literally millions of people in this category. It's not a simple thing to just say 'let's take this boat in and be good citizens'. "If you are going to take this boat, there are just thousands and thousands of other boats which will come." Key said people smugglers were acquiring very large boats capable of travelling to New Zealand and the government would listen to asylum seekers who did arrive in the country. "Once you get into the situation that they get into your territorial waters or come aboard, there are a lot of different complications and obviously New Zealand takes a humane view to these," he said. "But while they're not anywhere near our waters, the message is a very clear one -- we don't want people coming to New Zealand in this form. "Frankly that's the way it should be because there's a very clear pathway, it's fair to people, and that is you come through the normal channels as a refugee, otherwise you're jumping the queue." Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan asylum seekers were moored in the Riau Islands off the coast of Sumatra and said they were determined to reach New Zealand. "We are not illegal immigrants, but refugees," a spokesman, Romance Radan, told reporters.