A wooden fishing boat carrying about 250
asylum seekers from Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq and Turkey, that was believed
to be heading for Australia sunk 90km (55 miles) off the coast of Indonesia on
Saturday.
The boat turned over, broke apart and sank in
bad weather and huge waves of up to 5 metres in height off Indonesia’s main
island of Java.
Indonesian officials say that only 33
people (30 men, one woman and two children) have been saved. More than 200
asylum-seekers are still missing and thought to be dead.
Lieutenant
Alwi Mudzakir a maritime police official heading the search said bad
weather and large waves are challenging the rescue operation "We fear that
a large number of victims will not be rescued."
Indonesian police blame the accident on people
smugglers because they put too many passengers on a boat that was built to only
carry 100 people or less.
Survivors
said that they and the other passengers came from Iran and Afghanistan, and
had each paid smugglers between $2,500 and $5,000 to get on a boat and seek a
new life in Australia.
"According to them, they had flown from
Dubai to Jakarta and took buses to an unidentified location in Java to board
the boat. They said they were heading to Christmas Island," Mr Purwanto
said.
While most estimate that 250 asylum-seekers
were on board, some reports say there were 380 asylum-seekers on the boat.
One survivor from Afghanistan, 24-year-old Esmat
Adine, gave rescuers an estimate of how many passengers were on the boat.
"He did not know exactly how many
passengers there were, but he said that four buses with around 60 or more adult
passenger each had turned up to the port where the boat set off from," a
translator for Mr. Adine said.
Mr. Esmat Adine told
the Antara news agency that during the bad weather the ship had started
rocking violently from side to side, triggering panic among the tightly packed
passengers.
"That made the boat even more unstable
and eventually it sank,” he said.
Mr. Adine added that he and others clung to
parts of the broken boat until local fishermen rescued them. He estimated that
more than 40 children were on the boat.
Indonesia has more than 18,000 islands and
thousands of miles of unpatrolled coastline, making it a key transit point for
smuggling migrants.
Australian Government officials have warned
asylum-seekers and refugees against attempting to go to Australia by boat
because it is so dangerous.
Last month, a ship carrying about 70 asylum
seekers from Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan capsized in the same area off the
southern coast of Central Java province, and
at least eight people died.
Australia’s new Home Affairs Minister Mr.
Jason Clare blamed people smugglers for the tragedy.
"They're in the business of making money
and they don't care if it kills people or not," he said.
December is one of the most dangerous months
to attempt a sea crossing to Australia.
The
dangerous monsoon season begins December 1 and this tragedy has come just over
a year since the Christmas Island boat crash which killed dozens.
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