Nov. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd should negotiate the return of 78 asylum seekers to Sri Lanka or risk being seen as weak on immigration control, said Senate Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce.

“The expectation is once you arrive here by boat it is highly unlikely you will be sent back,” Joyce said in an interview on Channel 9 broadcast in Australia today. “This is creating a pull factor. We do not have the capacity.”

Rudd is under pressure from opposition lawmakers to cut the number of asylum seekers arriving in Australian waters, less than a week after a poll for the Australian newspaper showed majority support for his Labor government was falling.

Rudd has no choice but to send the Oceanic Viking, an Australian customs vessel moored in Indonesian waters with the asylum seekers on board, to the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, Joyce said. If they reach Christmas Island, an Australian territory more than 800 kilometers (500 miles) off the northwestern coast, “people have worked you out,” said Joyce.

“That is in essence defeat,” he said. “If you land at Christmas Island, in due course it means you’ll land in Australia. People will read that as you being weak.”

Australian officials have tried for about two weeks to convince the ethnic Tamil refugees to voluntarily leave the Oceanic Viking and enter the Tanjung Pinang detention center on the island of Bintan, northwest of Jakarta.

Howard’s Criticism

Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard said in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph today that Rudd has undermined public confidence in border security. Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull said Rudd was “outsourcing” immigration to people smugglers, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Rudd’s office didn’t immediately reply to an e-mail seeking comment today. The current standoff “presents its own complications,” the prime minister said yesterday in Sydney, according to a transcript of a news conference sent by his office. “We’ll work our way through that.”

Some Sri Lankans are seeking asylum in Australia to join relatives and friends, Senaka Walgampaya, Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to Australia, said on Network Ten television in Australia today. Sri Lanka’s army defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in May after a 26-year conflict.

“They are making use of the post-conflict situation in Sri Lanka to make that excuse to seek asylum in Australia,” the High Commissioner said. “They have seen that their friends and relatives who have been in Australia for many years and that they are having a good life.”

Asylum seekers sent back home wouldn’t be harmed, he said.

The Australian government should also help ensure their safety in Sri Lanka, Joyce said.

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Last Updated: November 7, 2009 19:26 EST