Australia works with Indonesia on boat people

28 Sep AFP

Australia is working “constructively” with Indonesia to stop boatloads of asylum-seekers travelling by sea, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said Saturday after another vessel sank and more than 22 drowned.

Thousands of asylum-seekers have travelled by boat to Australia this year, many after a transit in Indonesia, and scores have died trying to make the journey in unseaworthy vessels over the years.

On Friday, an Australia-bound boat sank off Indonesia, leaving at least 22 Middle Eastern asylum-seekers drowned and dozens missing.

Cormann said the tragedy highlighted the need to stop vessels trying to reach Australia, something the government is attempting to do via a policy that will see boats turned around if safe to do so.

“It is always terribly distressing when people die at sea in these sort of circumstances,” he told Sky News.

“Now we do have Operation Sovereign Borders under way, we are working very constructively with the Indonesian government and it's very important our efforts with the Indonesian government are going to be successful.” The issue will be on the agenda when Australia's new conservative Prime Minister Tony Abbott meets Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Jakarta on Monday.

Abbott has made no comment about the latest tragedy, and under his government's new media policy, the public will only be kept informed of operations at weekly briefings, the next of which is due on Monday.

Separate to the sinking, Australian authorities have picked up at least one other group of asylum-seekers and returned them to Indonesia.

The boat carrying 40 men and four children made a distress call Thursday, and because Indonesian authorities were unable to reach the vessel quickly, Australians were tasked with the rescue.

The asylum-seekers, who were from Pakistan, Iran and Myanmar, and two Indonesian crew, were then taken close to Indonesia and transferred to an Indonesian vessel.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation said an Australian Customs ship had also rescued a second boatload of 31 asylum-seekers and returned them to Indonesia.

Interim opposition leader Chris Bowen called on the government to release information about the latest operations.

“The government has previously said that when there was a tragedy or a significant event at sea, then they would provide briefings,” Bowen said.

“I would call on the government... to provide those briefings to the Australian people today.”