An asylum seeker boat that was carrying around 200 passengers capsized in Indonesian waters last Wednesday. An asylum seeker is someone who hopes to gain refugee status in another country and is fleeing persecution. Many boats that carry asylum seekers are not well made and often overloaded. In December of 2010, an asylum seeker boat, which was poorly constructed, crashed into the rocks at Christmas Island and killed 50 passengers.
Among the wreckage the search and rescue teams found 17 bodies and feared 90 missing. Among the 200 male passengers, 109 were rescued just northwest of Australia. The survivors were sent to Christmas Island in the Pacific where they are being detained and questioned by police. Most of the survivors are in good health and have minor injuries, if any. However, three passengers with significant injuries were airlifted to Perth, Australia for treatment. The air and sea search party has been called off due to bad weather and the dwindling hope of finding any more survivors this late after the crash.
Authorities in Australia state that they knew the boat was in distress and instructed the vessel to go back to Indonesia. The boat was advised to go back to Indonesia because it was closer to Indonesia than Australia and was still within Indonesia’s area of rescuing responsibility. It is believed that the boat capsized when it was stuck in sand for a few hours. When the vessel finally broke free, the weather became rough and caused it to capsize into the rough waters. The ones who survived clung to the ship’s debris or wore life jackets.
It is unclear where the passengers were from but authorities believe they were fleeing aggression and poverty from countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan. The incident is also raising questions about what to do about the growing number of asylum seekers bound for Australia. Foreign Minister Bob Carr is pushing to renew the Malaysian Swap deal which would let Australia send 800 asylum seekers to Malaysia in return for Australia relocating 4,000 refugees from Malaysia. Opponents of the swap deal say it is akin to “people dumping” and will do nothing to solve the problem. In the last six months, there have been 4,848 people trying to make it to Australia via boat. The Australian Green Party is pushing for Australia to increase its refugee acceptance figure from 14,000 to 25,000.
