MERAK: Around 120 Australia-bound asylum-seekers on Tuesday left the tanker that rescued them at sea, after a two-day standoff with Indonesian authorities.
The ship sailing from Australia to Singapore picked up the asylum seekers, all males and mostly Afghans and some Iranians, in Indonesian waters on Sunday.
Most left voluntarily and some were dragged off by Indonesian authorities, after a dramatic scene on deck when two refugees began shouting: "We want to die, we want to die," an AFP correspondent said.
The pair began to bleed after repeatedly beating their heads with metal bars.
"We have evacuated all of the asylum seekers and they are now being taken to the Feri Merak hotel," near the western Java port of Merak where the ship is docked, said immigration spokesman Maryoto Sumadi. They were driven away on two buses.
Earlier Tuesday, the refugees had said they would not disembark until Indonesia agreed to provide a vessel to allow them to continue to Australia, Indonesian officials said.
A few hours before they disembarked, an Afghan speaking on behalf of the group had said they wanted certain reassurances before agreeing to leave.
"We will get off the boat only if they promise that no one will be put into detention centres and no one will go to jail," said the man, who identified himself only as Atiqullah.
"I have been sent by the others on the boat to convey this message," he told reporters in English, before returning to the ship.
The Singapore-flagged MT Hermia rescued the asylum seekers from a sinking wooden vessel in the Sunda Strait, between Java and Sumatra islands, and took them to Merak.
Some of the men cried and screamed hysterically Monday as Indonesian police and immigration officials boarded the tanker and tried to pull some off the vessel. Some said they would refuse to disembark unless they were granted asylum in Australia.
In 2009, more than 200 Sri Lankan Tamil asylum seekers refused to get off a boat docked at Merak in a six-month standoff with Indonesian authorities, demanding to go to Australia.
They were not granted asylum, while around 80 other Sri Lankans rescued at the same time by an Australian customs vessel were granted a special resettlement deal by the Australian government.
In December, a boat carrying around 250 mostly Afghan and Iranian asylum seekers sank in Indonesian waters en route to Australia's Christmas Island, with only 47 surviving.
Indonesia is not a signatory to the UN refugee convention and often jails asylum seekers awaiting refugee status.
Asylum seekers are a hot political issue in Australia and dominated national elections in 2010 due to a record number of boat arrivals from Asia.