The Green Party says the Government's decision to accept 13 Sri Lankan Tamil refugees is a start but it wants the country to take in more displaced people.

The 13 are among 78 Sri Lankan Tamils rescued on the high seas by the Australian Customs ship, Oceanic Viking.

Greens spokesman Keith Locke says New Zealand should have accepted more people from the ship.

"The biggest refugee crisis in our region is the people coming out of Sri Lanka. We can take quite a number of them and I'm sure the local Tamil community would welcome that. Many of them are refugees themselves."

Mr Locke says hundreds of Tamils fleeing repression in the aftermath of a civil war are desperate to find refuge in this part of the world and New Zealand has plenty of capacity to accept more people from the Oceanic Viking under its annual refugee quota of 750.