The 43 asylum seekers from the Indonesian province of Papua, who arrived on Cape York two weeks ago, are now settling in to life on remote Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean.

The single men, who comprise about half the group, are being held in a detention centre there but the Government is allowing family groups to live in houses and wander the island.

This freedom has allowed them to mix with islanders and talk to the media.

The leader of the group, a student activist, says they are fleeing persecution.

Herman Wainggai has visited Australia before to give a speech about the plight of the indigenous people of his Indonesian province.

He says they are being oppressed.

Because he fled with his young family, Mr. Wainggai is allowed to live in a house on Christmas Island, with no guards, and can talk freely.

"We are here because we are pressure under Indonesia Government military. We are target from military of Indonesia to killing us and then plenty people now in West Papua also they under pressure of military Government of Indonesia," he said.

Mr. Wainggai says it took six weeks for his group of 43 to sail in an outrigger from the northern side of Papua province, around the island and into the Gulf of Carpentaria, where they were lost for four days in rough seas with no food or water.

"If we came to Australia, I know true in Australia Government have to calling international community to look for what happened in West Papua. We have to solve problem in West Papua, political rights," he said.

His group is not alone on Christmas Island. There is also a family of seven West Timorese who say they fled inter-religious violence.

Mahmud Ridwan has two young children, so is now living in a house just down the street from the Papuan families.

He says that, while detained in Darwin, his family was forced to meet with, and be photographed by, Indonesian consular officials.

"Well, they being, since we arrived in Darwin, they've been asking DIMIA for meet with us," he said.

"So we say 'No, no, no,' but then DIMIA just let the Indonesian Consulate come into the room and see our face and having interview: 'Where are you from? What's your name?'. So they got our name already.

"The next morning, they just wake up everybody in the morning and then took out to the airport. They say, "You're going to fly away to Indonesia.

"But everybody's scared: crying, my wife, because we know we're going to be in big trouble.

Politicians visit

A cross-party parliamentary committee was on Christmas Island at the weekend and visited the asylum seekers.

One of the politicians who spoke with them was Queensland Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce, who says he is sympathetic, and that their claims of religious as well as ethnic persecution should be taken into account.

"If people are persecuting people because of their religion, then obviously that is an issue, especially when it's next door to us, the proximity of this," he said.

"Religion, of course, is not an issue until someone persecutes you because of it."

Labor MP Warren Snowdon, a fairly regular visitor to Christmas Island, says he can not understand why the Government has softened its policy on detention, but is still building a massive new detention centre on the far side of the island.

"How bizarre is this? We've had a change in policy. We had this multimillion, multi-hundreds of millions worth of work being done out here around a policy setting which was jail them," he said.

"Well, it's no longer the policy setting, so they've designed a facility which is in part redundant for its purpose for which it was originally designed."

New South Wales Greens Senator Kerry Nettle was also on Christmas Island this weekend, but not as part of the committee. She travelled independently.

She is calling on the Australian Government to mediate between Jakarta and the freedom movement in the province of Papua, so as to stop what she is calling a slow genocide.

"We have a strong and mature relationship with Indonesia. That means we can agree on some things and we can not agree on other things," she said.

"The Government has a choice in making a decision about these asylum claims. Do they choose to stand up for human rights and for freedom? Or do they want to stand with the Indonesian military and their repression in killing of innocent civilians?"

Lawyers for both the asylum seekers and the Government are continuing their interviews.

There is no indication how long that will take.

Source: ABC News