Residents of Christmas Island were awakened by screams from the sea as a wooden boat carrying an undetermined number of asylum seekers wrecked off Australia yesterday.
From AFP News:
SYDNEY (AFP) – Hope dwindled for survivors of a refugee boat wreck off Australia Thursday which killed at least 28 people, including seven children, renewing debate on the plight of boat people travelling from Asia.
The wooden craft, crowded with up to 100 Iraqi, Kurdish and Iranian asylum seekers and their children, hit rocks at remote Christmas Island Wednesday and was shattered by huge waves as residents watched in horror.
Traumatised survivors pulled from the sea after the disaster huddled in a hospital and reception centre Thursday, with the most seriously injured flown to Perth as hope faded of finding their fellow passengers alive in wild seas.
“We have got to prepare ourselves for the likelihood that more bodies will be found and there has been further loss of life than we know now,” warned Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who cut short her holiday to respond to the emergency.
[….]
More than 5,000 asylum seekers from Iraq, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka have made their way to Australia this year, mostly on unseaworthy vessels from Indonesia, prompting criticism of Canberra for softening its refugee policy.
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See our Australia category where we have written on many previous occasions about Australia’s boat people problem.