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nother group of asylum seekers has been forced to return to Indonesia after their boat was intercepted last week by Australian authorities when attempting to reach Australian shores.

Sixteen asylum seekers from India, Nepal and Pakistan arrived in the East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) provincial capital of Kupang on Thursday evening after a boat provided by the Australian Navy that they used to head back to Indonesia sank off the coast off West Kupang earlier in the day.

The asylum seekers, along with an Indonesian crew member, were later rescued by local residents and law enforcers before being transported to Kupang for questioning.

On Friday, 22-year-old Pakistani Muhammad Anwar, one of the people on board the vessel, said he and other asylum seekers had been sailing for Australia'€™s Christmas Island before being intercepted by the Australian Navy and told to go back.

'€œWe had been [sailing toward] Christmas Island for four days and were sent back to Indonesia by the Australian Navy, because their government didn'€™t want to take us in,'€ said Anwar, who claimed to have spent a total of 10 days at sea before being found stranded on West Kupang'€™s Tablolong Beach.

Anwar said he and his entourage were offered safe passage by an agent reportedly operating in the port city of Pelabuhan Ratu, West Java, for a fee of US$5,000 per person.

Anwar said he never met the agent in person, as all arrangements had been carried out over the phone.

Gotlief, the captain of the boat, said the group had been housed on Christmas Island for four days before being sent back on another boat with minimal resources.

'€œThe vessel we initially sailed on had been destroyed [by the Australian Navy]. In exchange, we were given another boat, the Farah, with just enough fuel. After that, we were told to go back to Indonesia,'€ he said.

NTT Police spokesperson Adj. Sr. Comr. Jules Abas said the asylum seekers comprised 13 Indian nationals, two Nepalese and one Pakistani.

All the asylum seekers, Jules said, had been found in a healthy state and had undergone questioning until late Thursday before being handed over to Kupang immigration officials.

'€œWe are coordinating with immigration in handling the immigrants, while the Indonesian who brought them will undergo further investigation,'€ he said, adding that the asylum seekers would be temporarily accommodated at the local immigration detention center.

In 2013, Australia'€™s conservative government introduced tough immigration policies in a bid to stop an influx of migrants arriving by boat. Asylum seekers arriving on boats are sent to Pacific camps while some vessels are turned back when it is safe to do so, or taken back to their country of origin.

In June, a group of Indonesian citizens claimed they had received thousands of dollars from Australian authorities to transport 65 people from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Myanmar back to Indonesia following a failed attempt to bring the asylum seekers to Australian shores.

Meanwhile, Deputy Foreign Minister AM Fachir regretted Australia'€™s insistence on its push-back policy, saying that there was a need to develop a common solution for the problem.

'€œA unilateral action is actually not in line with our spirit of cooperation, which is why we need to discuss this issue together,'€ Fachir said on the sidelines of an international roundtable meeting on irregular migration attended by 13 countries and two international organizations.

'€œIt would be better if we had a common perception for action on the issue, because unilateral action will not solve the problem,'€ he added.