200 asylum-seekers missing after boat sinks on way to Australia

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.

Australian Government Still Wants to Pursue Malaysia Plan

The Australian Labor Party has voted to pursue a regional plan for the offshore processing of asylum seekers at its national conference.

There are two main political parties in Australia, the Australian Labor Party and the Liberal Party of Australia. Most people elected to Parliament are members of these parties. The current government is a Labor Party government and is led by the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard.

Members of the Labor Party met on the 3rd December to decide what policies they would have while in government. The Minister for Immigration, Chris Bowen, proposed that the Malaysia Plan should become a policy of the Labor Party. At the same time, he also proposed that the intake of UNHCR-registered refugees should be increased, from 13,750 to 20,000 a year. Both proposals were approved and are now Labor Party policies.

While they are Labor Party policies, they have not been voted on in Parliament so are not yet laws. Mr Bowen said “it's my view that we will be pursuing it through the parliament again, (but) we will need to see Mr. Abbott change his position if it is to pass the parliament.” Mr. Abbot is leader of the Liberal Party that wants offshore processing in Nauru, not Malaysia. The immigration spokesman for the Liberal Party said the government's asylum seeker policy had failed.

Several Labor party members criticized the proposals and the Malaysia Plan saying that the Plan violates Australia's international obligations as a signatory of the UN Refugee Convention. Refugee groups also attacked the proposals. The Refugee Action Coalition said “any plan to expel asylum seekers to Malaysia, or any other third country, is a fundamental (failure of) Australia's obligation to provide protection for who arrive on our shores fleeing persecution.” But Mr Bowen said Australia needs "to tackle this with a soft heart and a hard head."

The Government first proposed the Malaysia Plan in May this year in an attempt to deter people-smugglers. Under the Plan, 800 asylum seekers arriving in Australia by boat would be sent to Malaysia to have their refugee applications processed but they would not be allowed to come to Australia, even if their applications were successful. In return for taking the 400 asylum seekers, Australia would accept 4,000 registered refugees from Malaysia. The plan collapsed in August after Australia's High Court said offshore processing was illegal under current Australian law.

The Government believes that processing asylum seekers in Malaysia will break the people smugglers business model and prevent even more asylum seekers from drowning at sea. At the conference, Mr. Bowen said refugees were risking their lives on boat journeys between Australia and Indonesia. Almost 50 asylum seekers drowned when their boat sank off the coast of Christmas Island a year ago. "There have inevitably been others that we simply don't know about," he said.

On the 2nd December the 59th and 60th boats this year carrying asylum seekers arrived in Australia. This brings the total number of asylum seekers arriving by boat this year to 3,802. There are approximately 500 more asylum seekers waiting for boats in Indonesia.  If they arrive this year, the annual total is set to exceed 4,000 for the third time since 1999.  This is less than the almost 7,000 who arrived by boat in 2010.

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.

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.