A group of 11 Sri Lankan asylum seekers were picked up by Indonesian police near Indonesia's Bintan island this week.<br /><br />The group of seven men, two women and two children were said to be abandoned by a Malaysian agent after being told they would be taken to Australia.<br /><br />For many ethnic Tamils from Sri Lanka, fleeing conflict and what they say is discrimination in their homeland and travelling by boat on a dangerous journey to an uncertain life in Australia is viewed as their only shot at a better life.<br /><br />Many of them end up detained as refugees and only a handful are granted asylum each year.<br /><br />But hundreds of them are still willing to try, despite the risks and the high financial costs, as Al Jazeera's Aela Callan finds out.
