Fresh spy claims over Tampa affair

The Tampa, pictured last year anchored off the coast of Australia's Christmas Islands

CANBERRA, Australia (CNN) -- A year after Australia sparked an international incident by denying entry to a Norwegian ship carrying asylum seekers, the issue is still raising hackles and generating heated debate across the nation.

Pro-refugees groups have organized protest rallies in major cities, amid renewed accusations of the Australian government spying on Norway during the crisis.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International has released a critical report on Australia's asylum-seekers policies Monday to coincide with the Tampa anniversary.

This day last year, the Australian government denied entry to Australian waters for a Norwegian-flagged freighter, MV Tampa, which was carrying 433 asylum seekers who had been rescued from a sinking ferry bound for Australia.

The government sent in Special Air Services troops to ensure the Tampa could not disembark the asylum seekers on the remote Australian territory of Christmas Island.

IN-DEPTH Australia's tide of refugees    EXTRA INFORMATION People smuggling: Stemming the flow    MORE STORIES • NZ questions detention ruling  • One too many asylum seekers     CNN.com Asia More news from our Asia edition

Arguing the boatpeople should have been taken to the nearest Indonesian port, not Australian territory, the conservative government of Prime Minister John Howard arranged for the asylum seekers to be transferred to the Pacific Island nation of Nauru to have their claims for refugee status processed by the United Nations.

The Tampa decision angered the Norwegian and Indonesian governments, with accusations flying that Australia was using the situation to score domestic political points.

There have also been suggestions Australia's spy agencies intercepted communications between the captain of the Tampa and various Norwegian officials.

A book by Norway's Terje Svabo, to be released in October, claims Australia's top-secret Defence Signals Directorate eavesdropped on conversations between Norwegian ambassador Ove Thorsheim and Tampa's captain Arne Rinnan.

Thorsheim asked Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer in February for details about the spying when it became clear his telephone conversations had been tapped, Australia's Courier-Mail newspaper reports Monday.

"He (Downer) said normally the Australian government did not give information about its intelligence," Mr Thorsheim is quoted saying.

Thorsheim said the Australian government neither confirmed nor denied it had eavesdropped on his calls.

The Tampa anniversary has been marked by protest rallies around Australia with pro-refugee groups handing out black armbands in the southern city of Melbourne Monday.

Amnesty report

The flow of people-smugglers' boats to Australia has dried up

A week of protest actions is planned by groups who believe the Howard government has exploited the issue of asylum seekers for its own political gain and denied natural justice to boat-people arriving at Australian shores.

In a report released Monday, human rights group Amnesty International said the Tampa incident showed how "desperate" the Australian government was to keep refugees out in the name of combatting people smuggling.

"The government has its priorities skewed; addressing the problem of international people smugglers should not mean punishing those they exploit," Amnesty says in the report.

"Addressing international people smuggling cannot justify letting children suffer behind barbed wire for years or splitting families on temporary visas," it says.

But the government credits its tough stance with stemming the tide of people-smuggling boats.

Nearly 8,000 asylum seekers arrived on Australian shores last year, usually on decrepit boats and ferries from Indonesia organized by people-smuggling networks.

Numbers stalled

Since the government adopted its zero-tolerance policy post the Tampa incident the number of boats arriving has stalled.

Australia's Minister for immigration, Philip Ruddock, told media Monday the Tampa incident had been "an important turning point in focusing national and regional attention on the global refugee crisis and people smuggling".

"We've has nine-and-a-half months without any boats," Mr Ruddock said. "Do I think that's a good thing? Yes I do.

"I think the fact that people are not getting into boats, that their claims can be processed in Indonesia, is a good thing because it means the possibility of further people dying at sea in the tragic way we saw at the end of last year with 350 people drowning off Indonesia, those sorts of circumstances are avoided," he said.