A group of 11 Sri Lankan asylum seekers were picked up by Indonesian police near Indonesia's Bintan island this week.

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.

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.

Many of them end up detained as refugees and only a handful are granted asylum each year.

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.