Reports that all of the Sri Lankan asylum seekers rescued by the Oceanic Viking have been given refugee status have highlighted the Australian Government's inexcusable game-playing on the issue, according to Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young.

Senator Hanson-Young, Greens spokesperson for Immigration and Human Rights, says the 78 men, women and children on board the boat are in Indonesian detention waiting for their future to be resolved and that they must be resettled by the New Year.

"These traumatised people were left drifting on the waters off Indonesia for a month, pleading for asylum, while the Prime Minister sat back and played politics, boasting of his political ‘toughness','' Senator Hanson-Young said.

"Now it appears as if all 78 have been found to have a legitimate claim for asylum.

"The Greens will hold the Prime Minister to his promise to find these people a new home if they were found to be refugees.

"We cannot allow these 78 including vulnerable children to languish in Indonesian detention centres into the New Year.''

Last year Australia's migration intake included the resettlement of just 35 people detained in Indonesia who had been found to be refugees, Senator Hanson-Young says.

"The warehousing of refugees in Indonesia is neither humane nor practical,'' Senator Hanson-Young said.

"Kevin Rudd must stop relying on weasel words to avoid speaking the uncomfortable truth - Australia has to do more to help cope with the phenomenon of global human movement and people seeking asylum.''

The reports about those from the Oceanic Viking raises renewed questions about the 250 asylum seekers still on board a cargo boat at Merak, after being intercepted by Indonesia at Australian request.

"These asylum seekers have been conveniently forgotten in the media focus on the Viking - the men, women and children have now been waiting in the harbour for more than ten weeks,'' Senator Hanson-Young said.

"Indonesia is not a signatory to the UN Refugee Convention, and it is no wonder these people are scared of being left to languish in Indonesian detention for years if they leave the boat.

"They should be brought to Australia and processed quickly, fairly and humanely.''