17 Dec 2010

Shipwrecked asylum boat carrying 'up to 100 people'

7:34 am on 17 December 2010

The Australian Government now says up to 100 people may have been on an asylum-seeker boat which broke up on rocks at Christmas Island.

Twenty-eight people, including several children, are now known to have died in the tragedy, the ABC reports. Another 42 are confirmed to have been rescued from rough seas near Flying Fish Cove.

Witnesses described watching helplessly from nearby cliffs as the wooden boat, thought to be carrying people from Iran and Iraq, broke up on the coastline of the Indian Ocean island on Wednesday morning.

Rescue crews were to preparing to resume a search on Thursday, though Australian Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said the seas were very rough and the safety of rescue personnel was the first priority.

The ABC said two seriously injured women, in their 20s, were flown to hospital in Perth.

A resident on Christmas Island, Abdul Ghafar Ismail, told Morning Report that victims had told him there were engine problems before the boat was smashed to pieces.

The UN's refugee agency has expressed shock at the deaths, warning that too many people are losing their lives while fleeing hardship.

A spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said far too many people were tragically losing their lives as they took desperate measures to escape conflict, persecution and poverty.

The UNHCR acknowledged that the capacity of countries in Asia, around the Mediterranean, the Caribbean or the Gulf of Aden to host those fleeing was being sorely tested, but said most were found to be refugees escaping oppression or violence.

Christmas Island, about 2600km northwest of Perth, has Australia's main immigration detention centre where all asylum seekers arriving by boat are taken.

Thousands of people from Iraq, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka have arrived there this year, often crossing from Indonesia.