Asylum Seeker Boat Almost Crashes Near Christmas Island

The Christmas Island boat tragedy was almost repeated when another asylum seeker boat came very close to crashing into rocks off the coast of Christmas Island just over a week ago.

The boat, carrying 79 asylum seekers from Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Sudan and Pakistan, was rescued by local volunteers and naval personnel in stormy weather on the evening of November 20. Officials only detected the boat after one of the passengers made an emergency telephone call to a relative living in Australia. Those on board were taken to Christmas Island for health, security and identity checks.

According to the asylum seekers on board, the boat’s captain jumped overboard before the Australian Navy arrived. Under new laws in Australia crew on asylum seeker boats who are arrested will serve mandatory time in jail. Officials believe this is the first time a captain has tried to avoid being arrested.

The captain is still missing and feared dead after search-and-rescue efforts by Australian officials failed to find him.

The Refugee Action Coalition's Ian Rintoul says the Government's people smuggling laws should be abandoned. “The people who are in control of the boats are becoming so fearful of consequences of carrying asylum seekers that they would jump overboard not only endangering themselves but potentially endangering other people," he said.

The near-sinking occurred almost a year after last December’s tragedy in which a boat carrying asylum seekers smashed into Christmas Island’s rocky shore in similar conditions. The 2010 disaster cost the lives of 50 asylum seekers. The latest boat rescue also comes less than a month after 20 asylum seekers and crew drowned when their boat sank before it could even leave Indonesian waters. These incidents highlight the dangers facing asylum seekers trying to reach Australia by boat.

People Smugglers and Australia

A large number of asylum-seekers are trying to get to Australia using people smugglers.

People smugglers are individuals or groups who help people to get to another country. Often, this involves crossing country borders illegally or arriving in countries without the proper papers. People smuggling businesses have chains of smuggling agents who recruit people for the journey in countries like Afghanistan. Once people have paid for the journey they are then sent through trusted intermediaries in places like Dubai, Malaysia and Indonesia.

In the case of Australia, people smugglers are taking asylum-seekers to Australia by boat or helping them to go by plane. In the first half of this year 1,709 people sought asylum in Australia and about half of them arrived by boats organized by people smugglers.

Many of the asylum-seekers trying to reach Australia by boat travel through Indonesia. Indonesia is one of the closest countries to Australia and because Indonesian fisherman often fish near Australian waters people smugglers make use of fishing boats to take asylum-seekers. It is also very difficult to police the long Indonesian coastline and prevent fishermen from becoming crew on boats heading to Australia.  The fishermen are usually very poor.

Australia’s anti-smuggling laws do not distinguish between the organizers of people smugglers and fishermen; all are given at least five-year jail sentences if found guilty. But the fishermen are usually paid very small amounts of money, sometimes as low as 60 Australian dollars and may not even know that they will be breaking Australian law.

Mr. Bamba Maja is a fisherman from Indonesia.  He was one of four crew members on a 15-metre wooden fishing boat stopped by Australian patrol boats off Western Australia in March 2010. He said that he took the job to earn money to help his impoverished family. Mr. Maja was paid just $500 but the asylum-seekers on the boat had paid the people smuggler between $4,000 and $6,000 to make the dangerous journey. Mr. Maja was found guilty in an Australian court and sentenced to five years' jail. The people smuggler who organized the journey has not been tried.

International research shows that people smuggling businesses often develop in local and refugee communities and that people smugglers are motivated by both money and a desire to help people. Several UNHCR-registered refugees have spent time in Australian jails for people smuggling.

Mr. Shadi is an Iraqi born man who tried to get to Australia by taking a boat to Christmas Island. When this didn’t work, he became a people smuggler and for three years helped send asylum-seekers to Australia.

Mr. Shadi was the moneyman and recruiter. He says, “You don't need to sell this, or say things like government will pay you money if you go, no one says that. It's just that everybody knows Australia is much better than their own country. That is it. We know by TV, newspaper, internet, you know what the life is like here, Western life. We give you promise to get there and we will try again and again and again until we get you there. We give you promise to leave in two weeks and if it's longer than two weeks we will pay for your hotel, accommodation, whatever.” When Mr. Shadi was working as a people smuggler a boat usually cost $US20,000. The Indonesian fishermen crew and corrupt airport officials would cost another $US20,000 but each passenger would pay between $US2,000 to $US10,000.

Eventually Mr. Shadi became an undercover agent for the Australian Federal Police. Working with the police he testified against some of the biggest people-smugglers and explained the detailed routes people smugglers used to get people to Australia.

Research suggests that the laws that try to stop asylum-seekers crossing borders actually work to push asylum-seekers towards people smugglers. And because people smuggling is a regional problem it cannot be resolved by one country alone. Widespread co-operation is needed between the countries that are source countries, the countries that are transited through, and the destination countries.

First Forced Deportation of Afghan Asylum-seeker from Australia Delayed

The Australian Government's decision to force the deportation of a failed Afghan asylum-seeker for the first time has been temporarily stopped by Australian courts.

Ismail Mirza Jan, 26 years old, fled Afghanistan as a teenager in 2001, three years after his father was killed by the Taliban. He reportedly travelled to Pakistan, Iran and Greece before applying for asylum in Britain. His application was rejected in Britain and then in Ireland, but he was able to live temporarily in Ireland on humanitarian grounds. He arrived in Australia in February 2010 using a false Turkish passport.

He is currently in maximum security at the Villawood Immigration Detention Centre in Sydney after his refugee application was rejected. His application was also rejected by the Refugee Review Tribunal and Australian courts.

Mr Mirza will be charged $2,000 to be flown to Afghanistan and another $30,000 for Australian officials who will need to accompany him.

The Australian Government ordered his removal to Kabul on 15 November 2011. This would have been the first time an Afghan asylum-seeker has been sent home against their wishes because of a deal to return Afghans between Australia, Afghanistan and the UN Refugee Agency. The agreement between them was signed in January 2011. Australia says the agreement allows Australia to force the deportation of Afghans who do not qualify for refugee status and protection.

On Wednesday 16 November lawyers for Mr Mirza applied to the Australian Federal Court to stop his deportation, planned for Saturday 19 November. His lawyer argued that deporting Mr Mirza would go against the Migration Act. His lawyer also says that his client was denied justice because the Government never informed him of the reasons for rejecting his refugee application.

The Court issued a temporary order to stop his forced removal to Kabul until his case can be heard. A refugee activist said the case would probably not be heard until next year.

It is believed that travel documents issued by the Afghan government will expire at the end of January. Documents shown at Court showed that the Afghan government has already approved the deportation.

There are currently 1,246 Afghans in detention in Australia. If this deportation goes ahead, it is likely that more Afghans will be forced to return to Afghanistan if found not to be genuine refugees.

20 Asylum-seekers die on the way to Australia

At least 20 asylum seekers have drowned when their boat sank off the Indonesian coast on 1^st November 2011.
The asylum seekers were attempting to reach Australia on a small wooden boat.  The boat was carrying around 70 asylum seekers from Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan but it did not have enough equipment.  The boat left from Central Java and was heading for West Java when it sank.
Indonesian authorities said that 52 people were rescued and 8 people were confirmed dead including 4 women and 2 children. Another body was found later and the body of a nine-year-old boy was pulled from the water on Wednesday 2^nd November. At least other 10 people are still missing including three girls aged about two.
The rescue operation has failed to find any more bodies or survivors until now. Injured survivors are being cared for in a hospital and medical centre. The other survivors are understood to be at a police station and navy base.
An Indonesian policeman said "the dead have been identified as being from Afghanistan and Pakistan. The ones survived mostly from Iran. We believe there were at least 59 Iranian, three Afghanis and six from Pakistan. But the number is not supported by documents and there is a language problem too. So, we can't tell exactly the number missing. It's just a rough number."
Indonesia authorities said that bad weather and overcrowding might have contributed to the accident. There are also reports that local fishermen's associations had been warning for days that conditions were too rough to go out in the sea.
One of the survivors is an Iranian widow who had decided to try to start a new life in Australia with her two children, Mahdieh, her 14-year-old daughter, and Mahdi, her nine-year-old boy. “I was feeling sick and I was asleep [on the boat]. They woke me up when it was sinking. I said ‘I can't see my daughter, my people,’” she said. She found a life jacket and jumped into the sea but never saw her children again.
The is the first tragedy since December last year when nearly 50 people died after their boat smashed into rocks off the coast of Christmas Island. There have been many tragic incidents of asylum seekers on the way to Australia in past years, especially during the monsoon season when the weather is bad and the seas become very rough.
Australian authorities are concerned that even more asylum seekers will drown trying to get to Australia on unsafe boats in dangerous waters. The Home Affairs Minister said ''If we do not have the strongest deterrent to prevent people smugglers plying their trade, we will see further disasters ... we do not want to see further tragedies. This really does underline the need for parliament and for all parties involved to put in place the most effective deterrent to stop this awful trade.''
Australian politician Sarah Hanson-Young said the tragedy proved that more needed to be done to create safer options for asylum seekers. “This must include taking more people directly from Indonesia and Malaysia before they set out in unseaworthy vessels,” she said.
The Australian Government continues to look for support for its Malaysia Plan which it believes will break the people smugglers model and deter asylum seekers from risking their lives trying to get to Australia by boat. The Immigration Minister said “this is a terrible tragedy but it is a fact that when you have more boats coming to Australia you will see more deaths. We didn't adopt the Malaysia arrangement because it was politically easy or it was convenient, quite the opposite. We adopted it because we knew that this was the sort of arrangement that was necessary to avoid more deaths at sea.”
The Home Affairs Minister also said the Opposition should support the Malaysia Solution. "This is a tragic event, which underscores the absolutely dire need to put in the strongest possible deterrence to combat people smuggling and to prevent dangerous vessels from embarking on a journey to Australia,'' he said.

Australian and Malaysian Leaders Pursue the Malaysia Plan

The Malaysian Prime Minister, Najib Razak, and the Australian Prime Minister met for the first time since the Malaysia Plan was shelved.  The Malaysian Leader is in Australia for a meeting of Commonwealth leaders and talked with Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard on 27th October.

Ms Gillard and Mr Najib believe that the Malaysia Plan is the best way to stop people smuggling.  After their meeting, a spokesperson said that “both prime ministers reaffirmed their commitment to the Malaysia-Australia transfer agreement as an innovative and effective approach to combating people smuggling.”

The two leaders struck the deal in May this year.  As part of the plan Australia would send 800 asylum seekers who arrived in Australia by boat to Malaysia in exchange for 4,000 processed refugees.  But the Australian High Court said that the deal was against the law because the Government does not have the power to decide that asylum seekers can be sent to any country.  The Australian Government tried to change the law but failed because they did not have enough support in Parliament.

Despite the High Court ruling, the Australian Government says it remains committed to the Malaysian Plan.  The Government says that it believes sending asylum seekers to Malaysia would undermine people smugglers and stop asylum seeker boats sailing for Australia.  Many asylum seekers pass through Malaysia when they try to come to Australia.

The Malaysian Prime Minister said he wanted to go ahead with the Plan because he did not want to see more people drowning like those off Christmas Island.  In December 2010 30 asylum seekers drowned when their boat crashed off the coast of Christmas Island.  18 more bodies were never found.  "At this point, it would be easy to give up, to tell ourselves that we tried but the problem was too big, too politically difficult to deal with, and the people smuggling would go on.  The boats would continue to sail.  Heartless traffickers would continue to take everything from desperate people - their money, their dignity and, all too often, their lives,” he wrote to an Australia Newspaper.

The Malaysian Leader also said “it is nothing less than a 21st-century trade in human misery and it must not be allowed to continue.”  He said he was not prepared to stand by and watch people smuggling continue.

Australia’s Immigration Minister welcomed the comments by the Malaysian Prime Minister but said that because of the High Court ruling and the Opposition’s decision not to support changing the law, the Malaysia Plan could not go ahead at the moment. 

The Opposition also wants to process asylum seekers offshore but not in Malaysia.  The Opposition wants to tow people-smugglers boats back to Indonesia when possible and send asylum seekers to Nauru.  They also want to re-introduce Temporary Protection Visas.

Meanwhile the Australian Navy found and caught another people smuggling boat on the 30^th of October.  The boat was carrying 57 asylum seekers trying to get to Australia.  It is the third boat in one week.

Australia currently has nearly 4,000 asylum seekers from countries such as Iran, Iraq, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan in detention.  This is less that the 6,000 people in detention centres earlier this year.