MORE than 200 asylum seekers are feared to have died after their boat sank off Java, victims of increasingly brazen syndicates that are funnelling people through Jakarta airport before packing them onto unsafe boats bound for Australia.
Just over a year after a disaster off Christmas Island in which 50 people died, a boat carrying about 250 asylum seekers sank off Prigi beach in eastern Java on Saturday.
There were conflicting reports last night about how many people survived. Indonesian officials said there were only 34 - contradicting Australia's new Home Affairs Minister, Jason Clare, who said 87 asylum seekers had been rescued.
The Afghans and Iranians who survived five hours in the water included two boys aged about 10 and two women, while the rest were adult males.
An Afghan survivor, Esmat Adine, described the sinking as ''like the Titanic''. The boat capsized quickly from the rear, he told the Indonesian news site tribunnews.com. ''We tried to hold onto anything,'' he said.
Survivors said about 40 of the 250 people on board were children. The boat had a normal capacity of about 100, according to Kelik Enggar Purwanto, of the local search and rescue team. It was unlikely any more survivors would be found, he said.
A Jakarta refugee advocate told The Age he had been in contact with a survivor who lost his wife and two youngest children. ''They were packed onto a boat, most of them in cabins below deck. Some of those on deck survived but everyone below died when the boat capsized.''
Many of the asylum seekers had flown from Dubai to Jakarta, where Indonesian officials are said to have charged them $500 each to pass through the airport without visas. They were then taken in four buses to an unknown location on the south coast of Java.
The case highlights the increased confidence of people-smuggling networks and the huge demand for their services. In recent months, the regularity of vessels attempting to cross to Australia has increased, as has the size of their human cargo.
Australia's main political parties expressed horror at the latest disaster and condemned people smugglers, but avoided criticism of each other's policies. Acting Prime Minister Wayne Swan said: ''Our thoughts are with the families and loved ones of those who died or are missing following this terrible event. It's a tragic reminder of the dangers of attempting journeys like this.''
The opposition immigration spokesman, Scott Morrison, said: ''People smugglers have proven they are prepared to crowd boats and take people's money with little regard to whether the boat makes it to its ultimate destination.''
The Greens' Sarah Hanson-Young said: "This is an awful tragedy and all involved should be given the time to mourn."
But a lawyer acting for survivors and families of those lost off Christmas Island a year ago said 1000 people had drowned while politicians used asylum seekers as political footballs. ''This disgraceful state of affairs is the
result of both political parties being unable to come to a bipartisan agreement and to develop an offshore processing policy to deal with asylum seekers,'' George Newhouse said.
''If our leaders had an ounce of decency - both of them - they would get together and formulate a serious policy to deal with the issue.''
Controversial former ALP leader Mark Latham blamed Labor's Left and the Greens for the deaths. ''Let's be brutally honest about it, the boats sinking and families dying is a direct consequence of the so-called compassionate people who support onshore processing,'' he told Sky News.
''Onshore processing is a magnet for people to pay people smugglers to get on boats that are unseaworthy and to effectively risk their lives.''
Ian Rintoul of the Refugee Action Coalition said there was a tendency to send the worst possible boats and most inexperienced crews. ''Everything works to make them less seaworthy and less valuable because it is a one-way trip: the boat doesn't come back,'' he said.
''If the government is worried about people losing their lives at sea, they should decriminalise people smuggling so that the voyages can be planned in open and seaworthy boats.''
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