Just when you thought you were stressed buying Christmas presents and juggling social engagements comes news of the most tragic kind. Refugees, seeking asylum in Australia, have drowned by their dozens as their boat crashed into rocks on Christmas Island.
Julie Cowdroy reports
.Dozens of people including women and children are feared dead as a boat carrying up to 80 asylum seekers crashed against razor sharp cliffs at Christmas Island earlier today. There have been reports of people screaming and hanging off the boat.
The Australian Federal Police say they are responding to what they call a ‘maritime incident involving a Suspected Irregular Entry Vessel’ at Christmas Island.
Acting PM Wayne Swan confirms there are an unknown number of fatalities and says, ‘Sadly some bodies have been retrieved’ and that a customs boat and one naval boat were involved in rescue operations.
Official numbers of survivors and fatalities have not been released, although some reports estimate there are 41 survivors and over 30 dead.
The weather conditions are terrible and make rescue operations extremely difficult with reports of witnesses having to watch without being able to help due to the razor sharp cliffs.
Fairfax newspapers report one witness saying:
.“It was horrific mate, I saw a person dying in front of me and there was nothing we could do to save them. Babies, children maybe three or four years old, they were hanging on to bits of timber, they were screaming ‘help, help, help’, we were throwing life jackets out to them but many of them couldn’t swim a few metres to reach them. The waves just kept on coming and smashed everything.”
Debris from the crash is spread as far as one kilometre and the terrible weather continues to impede rescue efforts.
Senator Sarah Hanson-Young from the Greens said, “It is clear that a terrible tragedy has occurred this morning off the coast of Christmas Island”.
It is odd that the boat was on the side of Christmas Island after a boat was intercepted from the other side just yesterday.
.Some locals are reported to have been involved in trying to save passengers by throwing life jackets and ropes, however, it was very difficult because of the volatile winds, waves up to eight metres high and the jagged cliff face.
Unfortunately the Bureau of Meteorology is reporting that the we
ather is set to be just as turbulent for the next few days.
The passengers are believed to have come from Iraq and Iran.
The journey to Australia by boats is a dangerous one. The people who choose to take it are evidently not taking the easy way out and it is tragic that many people are commenting on some news websites that the victims have to face consequences because they ‘jumped the queue’. One can only hope this reaction is not reflective of the wider public.
Latika Bourke summed it up with her tweet that said ‘The thought of fleeing to your death…It’s a black day.”
About the Author: As well as being the Mamamia Political Correspondent, Julie Cowdroy isan ambassador for Opportunity International Australia and the Global Poverty Project. Julie is also a singer and you can downloadher album here
Last night, on Paul Murray Live when I was asked to name my picks for Winners and Losers of 2010, I named my Losers as the 800 children who will spend this Christmas in detention, 280 of them unaccompanied minors.
This election year was yet another sad time to see the way politicians use the most desperate, traumatised and impoverished people – people with nothing, people fleeing for their lives – as political footballs to win cheap votes. I am sickened by the thought of the politics that has already begun to swamp this story, before all the bodies – some of children – have been recovered from the water.
There is no simple solution for the fact these boats arrive – have always arrived. Now is the time when our leaders must show compassion and leadership. Will they?
Top Comments
Gee, Julie 'women and children' included in the tragedy? Thats even more horrible than just men dying. Thanks for pointing that out :)
I am a past resident and former teacher of the CI detention centre. I use to not understand the reasoning behind the Pacific Solution during the Howard years, but with a tragedy like this, and the many boats lost at sea that we don't hear about, it all begins to make sense. Detainees always had their own mobiles, access to Internet/computers, regular outings (fishing trips or to local beaches) and always had the freshest food (their food seemed to always be fresher than the locals, and I reckon they ate better than most). They were never treated poorly, and families were given homes and the opportunity to work at the local op shop to help with spending money. It angers me to see what has happened since the change of government and angers me beyond belief at how the refugees behave, especially recently with their escaping from detention. Australian citizens live on this Island and if the government won't release these refugees this tells me that they shouldn't be running around lose. If they can't wait patiently for their papers to be processed then I say send them home. I thought I'd never say this but it looks as though the Pacific Solution was better than most believed, myself included.