Forty-one Sri Lankan asylum seekers returned by Australia are to be charged with leaving the country illegally and those found guilty face "rigorous imprisonment", police said on Monday, fuelling concerns about Australian policy and rights abuses in Sri Lanka, Reuters reported. Australia said the 41 were transferred to Sri Lankan authorities at sea on Sunday, but declined to comment on a second boat reported to be carrying an additional 153, saying only that it was not currently in Australian waters. Australian border patrol personnel intercepted the first vessel carrying 41 Sri Lankans west of the remote Cocos Islands last week, after they were suspected of entering Australian waters illegally. Australia declined to give details of how the group was transported back to the site of the transfer, which Australia said was off the eastern Sri Lankan port of Batticaloa. The Sri Lankan navy handed over the 41 to the police and police spokesman Ajith Rohana said the group would be produced before a court in the southwestern port of Galle. He did not say when.