Dozens saved, five drown north of Christmas Island

Up to five asylum seekers are believed to have drowned after their boat capsized off Christmas Island on Tuesday.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority received a request for help from a person on board the boat on Tuesday, about 120 nautical miles north of Christmas Island, in an area believed to be in Australian waters. A customs plane spotted the partially-submerged boat shortly after noon.

By 3.30pm, 106 people were recovered from the water. But at 6.30pm on Tuesday night AMSA called off the search.

The navy's HMAS Parramatta was joined by a merchant vessel in conducting the rescue operation.

"The vessel was upright, but partially submerged. A number of people were sighted in the water," an AMSA spokeswoman said of the scene when the navy ship HMAS Parramatta arrived.

"Information received from survivors indicates that up to five people remain unaccounted for.

"After an extensive search of the area for further survivors or bodies, none have been sighted. It is therefore believed any people unaccounted for have gone down with part of the vessel."

There were no details of the nationalities of those missing, nor whether they were men, women or children.

With darkness approaching, the search was suspended and HMAS Parramatta steamed to Christmas Island. Survivors face being sent to Papua New Guinea for processing once medical assessments are made.

The deaths at sea come as the federal government faces a legal challenge to its resettlement plan, which it says would mean no asylum seekers who arrive in Australia by boat would be resettled here.

This is the first reported boat crisis in Australian waters since Labor announced its new asylum seeker policy in late July.

It comes after two boat disasters last month, where a baby boy and four people died in two separate incidents. In June, 13 people died in another disaster.

The government has claimed that boat arrivals have fallen by as much as 30 per cent since the Papua New Guinea plan was announced, although a Fairfax Media analysis showed the drop was less than 20 per cent.

Asylum-seekers are a sensitive issue in Australia as their numbers increase, with more than 18,000 arriving so far this year.

Hundreds have drowned en route, most recently last month when a boat heading for Australia capsized off Indonesia -- leaving at least 15 dead, including six children.

The latest tragedy came as Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr and Immigration Minister Tony Burke were in Jakarta for regional talks on people-smuggling.

Among others represented in the Indonesian capital are Afghanistan and Sri Lanka -- the origin countries of many asylum-seekers who arrive in Australia after perilous sea journeys.

However, no delegates from Iran turned up even though it is the country that sends the most asylum-seekers into Australian waters.

Tuesday 20 August 2013

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2013/dozens-saved-five-drown-north-of-christmas-island-20130820-2s8l0.html

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