Australia rejects Vietnamese refugee claims in 40 minutes

CANBERRA, Australia — Officials say Australia secretly held a group of 46 Vietnamese asylum seekers on a warship at sea for almost a month and rejected their refugees claims during interviews that took as little as 40 minutes before returning them all to Vietnam last month.

Immigration Department secretary Michael Pezzullo told a Senate committee late Monday that the Vietnamese men, women and children were intercepted by an Australian border security vessel on March 20 and the asylum seekers were returned to the Vietnamese port of Vung Tau on April 18.

Maj. Gen. Andrew Bottrell said their refugee claims were rejected after individual interviews that lasted between 40 minutes and 2 hours.

Pezzullo said Australia had met its obligations under the United Nations Refugee Convention.