Jakarta - Indonesian police have arrested 70 migrants from Afghanistan seeking asylum in Australia, a police officer said Friday.

The Afghans were arrested late Thursday at a hotel in the resort area of Anyer in West Java, said Retno Windarti, an officer in the Cilegon district.

"They said they wanted to go to Australia - Indonesia is only a transit point," she said, adding that they had been taken to the immigration office.

Undocumented migrants from South Asia and the Middle East seeking better lives in Australia have for years used Indonesia as a transit country.

Three people were killed, at least 31 were injured and two are missing after a boat carrying 47 Afghan asylum seekers that had departed from Indonesia exploded Thursday off the west coast of Australia.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was quoted by the Australian Associated Press news agency as saying his government would maintain a tough policy against people smugglers, who were believed to be responsible for the explosion.

Rudd's Labor government has allowed asylum seekers who make landfall to stay in the country while their visa applications are processed. Arrivals are taken to Australia's Indian Ocean territory of Christmas Island to await a decision.

Under former prime minister John Howard, boats were intercepted and asylum seekers taken to Nauru or other Pacific island countries that hosted offshore immigration centres on Canberra's behalf.

The so-called Pacific Solution was credited with stopping the flow of unwanted arrivals but also widely criticized for being inhumane.(dpa)