CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia’s immigration minister said Sunday that Indonesia, not Australia, should have rescued of hundreds of asylum seekers who drowned after their boat sank between the two countries last year.
On Oct. 19, a dilapidated 60-foot wooden boat sank off the coast of Indonesia’s main island of Java, drowning 374 men, women and children. Only 44 of the passengers survived.
The asylum seekers, most of whom were from Iraq and Afghanistan, had paid smugglers for passage to Australia.
Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock on Sunday defended the Australian government, which has been under fire since a Senate inquiry found that authorities knew the boat’s approximate course and location after it left the Indonesian island of Sumatra and made its way toward Australia.
The inquiry also revealed that at the time an Australian navy ship on a surveillance exercise had been about 150 nautical miles away from where the boat sank.
Ruddock contended the site of the sinking was ultimately in Indonesian territory, and therefore was not the responsibility of the Australian authorities.
“The fact is, wherever it sank, it was in at least the Indonesian air, sea and rescue zone responsibilities,” he told the local Ten Network television.
Ruddock also cited recent intelligence reports that said there were another 1,000 asylum seekers, mostly from the Middle East and Central Asia, staying in Indonesia and waiting to come to Australia.
“There are reports…of another 1,000 or so people who are simply washing around in Indonesia at the moment looking at smuggling opportunities,” he said.
Indonesia has been criticized by Australia, which took a tough stance toward Indonesia late last year for failing to crack down on the increasing flow of asylum seekers passing through its territory on their way to Australia or New Zealand.
