INDONESIA SEARCHING FOR SURVIVORS OF MISSING AUSTRALIA BOUND ASYLUM SEEKERS PEOPLE WHICH SANK OFF JAVA ISLAND LEAVING 9 DEAD AND 189 SAVED IN DEAD WERE 4 CHILDREN INCLUDING 18 MONTH OLD BABY AND A PREGNANT WOMAN GOVT ESTIMATE THAT THERE WERE 200 IN BOAT BUT SURVIVORS SAY 250 PERSONS WERE IN THE BOAT Thursday, July 25, 2013 Indonesia searches for missing Australia-bound boatpeople CIDAUN: Rescuers searched for more survivors off Indonesia’s Java island Wednesday after an Australia-bound boat carrying asylum-seekers sank, leaving at least nine dead as 189 were saved. Five children, including an 18-month-old baby, and a pregnant woman were among the nine confirmed dead, local police spokesman Achmad Suprijatna told AFP. West Java province police spokesman Martinus Sitompul said 189 had now been rescued. He estimated around 200 people had been aboard the boat that began sinking Tuesday evening, but a survivor said the number was closer to 250. The boat left Indonesia just days after Canberra announced a tough new policy — that asylum-seekers who arrive by boat will no longer be resettled in Australia, even if they are granted refugee status. Instead, they could be resettled in poverty-stricken Papua New Guinea. Before the new policy announced Friday, new arrivals were already being taken to PNG or Nauru for processing of their asylum claims. An AFP reporter who spoke to survivors said a group of 38, including women and children, had swum for their lives in darkness for up to four hours in high seas to reach the shore Tuesday night. Ragunada, 30, from Sri Lanka said he and his children had used floats they found on the boat to help them swim to shore. “I tried to save my children. They used floats and then tried to swim. After three or four hours, we arrived at the village,” he told AFP. Others were plucked from the sea by fishermen and other rescuers. Chief of the rescue operation Rochmali, who goes by one name, said the asylum-seekers had been given food and water and would later be questioned by immigration officials.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Jul 2013 01:54:14 +0000
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