By MAMAMIA NEWS
At least 50 asylum seekers have drowned en route to Australia.
The group were off the southern coast of Java when the incident occurred. According to Indonesian officials, the boat was carrying asylum seekers from Iraq and Lebanon.
Of the 81 passengers on the boat, 35 were children. Tragically, it is believed that the majority of the dead were those under 15 years of age, who were unable to swim as the group waited for help.
Current reports are saying that the death toll is at 59.
Speaking to Fairfax, survivors have claimed that Australian naval forces knew of their exact location for 24 hours before sending help:
“I called the Australian embassy; for 24 hours we were calling them. They told us just send us the position on GPS, where are you,” one survivor, Abdullah, a man from Jordan, said.
“We did, and they told us, ‘OK, we know … where you are’. And they said, ‘We’ll come for you in two hours’.
“And we wait two hours; we wait 24 hours, and we kept calling them, ‘we don’t have food, we don’t have water for three days, we have children, just rescue us.”
There are reports that the boat came into trouble when the crew abandoned ship after receiving their payment.
The Abbott Government, who have campaigned strongly on stopping unauthorised boats, have not yet commented on the incident.
Top Comments
The attempts to blame Tony Abbott for a boat sinking so close to Indonesia that the wreckage lies on the shore is as astonishing as it is despicable.
The boat flipped just 50m off the Indonesian beach - yet it's Abbott's fault?
Give me a break.
The Abbott Government, who have campaigned strongly on stopping unauthorised boats, have not yet commented on the incident.
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Well,I think the Government should come alive and comment on the incident, this silence on the government part, is absolutely offensive toward the nation and it`s people, is as astonishing as it is despicable.
Is keeping people in the dark like mushrooms etc etc etc.
Any government in power would be in the same situation only if....... the way to behave was similar to the Abbott government . People have every right to know the true story ....... what is happening at the moment........ there is not clarity on the part of the government . In fact is as astonishing as it is despicable to keep the nation in the dark.
I'm amazed at the (successful) politicking going on around this. I personally find it very ugly, that people would seek to leverage the very real tragedy of death to make their point & blame Australia.
The fact is that these people drowned in Indonesian waters, not International or Australian waters. The responsibility to deal with the fallout of this in this instance (stressing: in this instance) is the Indonesian Government's.
Yet some amongst those that disagree with the Government's stance (as I have stated before I am not loving either Lab/Coalition's approach - but that is another topic) have decided to take it one irrational step further, and foist the responsibility onto the Australian Government, when again, the boat sunk in Indonesian waters, very close to land and Australia has no jurisdiction given that.
I have to admit I wonder why Australia is supposedly to blame for this because a phone call was made to Australian authorities. Was our navy/border staff supposed to go into Indonesian waters asap to rescue this boat? In Australian or international waters different story.