the boat people, page-7

Well a few years ago now Australia declared that Sri Lanka was a safe place to return asylum seekers to. Australia has a bi-lateral agreement with Sri Lanka so that we are able to return their citizens directly to them.
In this case though it looks like that instead of landing them in Australia, giving them health checks and flying them home Australia has decided to do that stuff on a Naval vessel and sail them home.
I guess they have their reasons for that. Intimidation perhaps. Maybe they are hoping to get the message out that Australians are "Bad Asses". Tough but fair.