The human tide continued with an asylum boat believed to be carrying 51 Tamil asylum-seekers arriving at Christmas Island and the merchant vessel Atlantic Hero rescuing 27 people 320km northwest of the Cocos Islands yesterday.
On Saturday each of the 18 bodies was transported in a vacuum-sealed wooden coffin marked with a numbered label and this, sadly, may be the only ultimate identifier for some of the victims. Just two of the bodies, both from the first capsizing, on June 21, have been identified so far.
There was only one victim from the second sinking, which happened less than a week later in the seas between Indonesia and Christmas Island. The sole victim of the second sinking is an adult male and West Australian police have said he could not be identified by any of the 130 survivors because they did not know him. Instead police will now try to identity the man, along with the the 15 unidentified bodies from the first capsizing, via disaster victim identification techniques such as dental records and matching DNA with family members.
This is likely to be a long and difficult process, with families from around the world and Australia contacting authorities desperate to know if their loved ones are among the bodies recovered. Post-mortems are also likely to be carried out on some of the bodies.
WA Police have established that there were as many as 220 passengers on the boat that sank on June 21, and only 110 people survived. These survivors, along with the 130 from the second high seas disaster, have been held in detention facilities on Christmas Island.
They have been interviewed by WA Police about the disaster and how they came to risk their lives in an unseaworthy vessel. As well, some have been interviewed by the Australian Federal Police about the people-smugglers they used to arrange their journey and the crew on the boat.
WA police detectives also left the island on the weekend, but their work will continue in Perth, where they will attempt to piece together who the missing are and prepare an extensive report for WA coroner Alastair Hope.
The bodies that left on Saturday had sat for weeks in a makeshift morgue that consisted of refrigerated shipping containers. These were placed behind the AFP headquarters, just metres down the road from Barracks Cafe.
Cafe co-owner Trish O'Donnell said people were deeply touched by the impact of bodies and injured passengers arriving on the island. Like many locals she is concerned people are becoming desensitised to tragedy. "It's not our island any more," she said.
The island's Muslim community also has been uncomfortable about the length of time the bodies remained on the island. Imam Abdul Ghaffar Ismail said Muslims were uneasy about this because Islam demanded bodies were buried as soon as possible.
It is unclear at this stage how many of the bodies will be buried in Australia and how many are likely to be repatriated to family in countries such as Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Monday 16 July 2012
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/immigration/hope-lost-in-death-leaving-nothing-but-a-number/story-fn9hm1gu-1226426693290
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