A BOATLOAD of 44 Sri Lankan asylum-seekers was last night due to leave for Australia from Indonesia - where they have been stranded for the past week - after Indonesian authorities said they would give them a navy escort out to sea. 
The group, which includes a pregnant woman and nine children, said they wanted to go to Australia.
When their journey, which began 1700km away in India, was hampered by bad weather, they docked in Aceh, on the northernmost tip of Indonesia, to shelter and fix the boat's engine.
Indonesian authorities have denied them the right to disembark as they have no travel documents, however they have been permitted to moor the boat to get supplies.
Police fired a warning shot in the air late on Thursday when several women jumped off the boat (pictured).
Late yesterday, Acehnese Governor Zaini Abdullah visited the boat after the group was given seven tonnes of fuel, food and water, as well as medical treatment, to set them up for their onward journey.
Mr Abdullah described the result as a "win solution", as a bulldozer was brought in to push the boat off the beach. He said the navy would escort the vessel from Indonesia back in the direction of India.The asylum-seekers, however, have said they are heading to Australia. They are understood to be from the Tamil minority, which is persecuted in Sri Lanka.