Australian search for 200 boat people ends
Australian search for 200 boat people ends
SYDNEY (AFP): Australian authorities said Wednesday they had called off a search for up to 220 boat people feared drowned when their boat sank on its way to Australia from Indonesia last month.
"It's highly unlikely there are any survivors," an Immigration Ministry official told AFP.
The boat went missing on a two-day trip from Java to the Australian territory of Christmas Island.
"It left on March 24-25 and we are confident it has not returned," the official said.
"No wreckage has been found."
Immigration Minister Philip Ruddoch said earlier the "insidious and dangerous" trade of people smuggling may have caused a tragic loss of life.
"Suggestions are that a boat with something of the order of 170 to 220 people may have foundered en route to Australia," he told ABC radio.
Boat people already in detention in Australia knew of the disappearance of the vessel, he said.
"Amongst many of the people in the detention centers there have been calls made to overseas destinations to assure family members they had in fact arrived safely given the reports that so many people had lost their lives in this incident."
Australian officials said the boat was reported to have sailed from Java late last month but had been hit by rough weather.
No further information about the boat or its passengers was available, but they appeared have been following the same route taken by hundreds of other illegal immigrants who have landed in Australia in recent months.
Last week, 61 people were rescued by the Australian Navy from a sinking Indonesian vessel off Western Australia's north coast.
The group of 57 suspected illegal immigrants and four Indonesian crew members, was taken off the boat as it crossed into Australian waters on April 3.
The 34 men, 16 women and 11 children were said to be in poor condition and their boat was taking on water..
They have been added to almost 4,000 others in detention centers awaiting a ruling on applications for asylum.
The latest influx of boatpeople began in mid-1999 and peaked in November when 1,200 people, mostly Iraqis, arrived on boats from Indonesia and the Indian sub-continent.