New Year, New Boat People
- By Bobby Castro
- Published 01/10/2012
- National, State, Local
- Unrated
A boat loaded with at least 119 individuals was intercepted off the Western Australian coast. The HMAS Maryborough under Border Protection duty found the boat about 18.5 nautical miles off Christmas Island. The passengers were suspected to be asylum-seekers to Australia.
In a previous report, an asylum seeker boat carrying nearly seventy individuals crashed into the jagged cliffs in turbulent seas. Many of these individuals have been feared dead as rescue efforts proved difficult amidst the raging waters. Many individual inhabiting Christmas Island reportedly heard screams and cries for help but were too late to prevent the tragedy from occurring.
This boat has been the third one intercepted in the New Year. A previous boat yielded 51 passengers and three crewmembers as they were found last Monday. As a matter of processing, these asylum seekers were sent to Christmas Island for security, identity and health checking.
According to the latest statistics, there are over three thousand individuals in immigration detention centers in the Australian mainland. Another thousand or so are in Western Australia, where two detention centers, a family camp and residential housing center is situ
ated. A new detention center located in Northam in the West Australia wheat belt would be completed by March. This center is designed to hold up to six hundred individuals for detention.
The current border protection policy of the government is still in disarray after the Australian High Court deemed the exchange of 800 asylum seekers for 4000 refugees from Malaysia as illegal. In other moves, the government is pushing for the reopening of the processing center in Nauru only when the Coalition would agree to the reopening of talks about the Malaysian refugee exchange.
In response, Opposition Border Protection spokesperson Michael Keenan said that the third boat arrival in the span of a week proves that the human smuggling trade is alive and thriving in 2012. He said, "Labor must show some resolve, end their arms wide open policy and stop encouraging people smugglers by taking away the product they have to sell."
He added, "Julia Gillard and Labor should have no higher priority this year than to finally tackle the border protection crisis they have created. In what will soon be 15,000 unauthorized arrivals since Labor unwound the Coalition's proven policies and created this problem - it is time the Prime Minister adopts the solution that we know works and that we've held for a decade."
In a previous report, an asylum seeker boat carrying nearly seventy individuals crashed into the jagged cliffs in turbulent seas. Many of these individuals have been feared dead as rescue efforts proved difficult amidst the raging waters. Many individual inhabiting Christmas Island reportedly heard screams and cries for help but were too late to prevent the tragedy from occurring.
This boat has been the third one intercepted in the New Year. A previous boat yielded 51 passengers and three crewmembers as they were found last Monday. As a matter of processing, these asylum seekers were sent to Christmas Island for security, identity and health checking.
According to the latest statistics, there are over three thousand individuals in immigration detention centers in the Australian mainland. Another thousand or so are in Western Australia, where two detention centers, a family camp and residential housing center is situ
The current border protection policy of the government is still in disarray after the Australian High Court deemed the exchange of 800 asylum seekers for 4000 refugees from Malaysia as illegal. In other moves, the government is pushing for the reopening of the processing center in Nauru only when the Coalition would agree to the reopening of talks about the Malaysian refugee exchange.
In response, Opposition Border Protection spokesperson Michael Keenan said that the third boat arrival in the span of a week proves that the human smuggling trade is alive and thriving in 2012. He said, "Labor must show some resolve, end their arms wide open policy and stop encouraging people smugglers by taking away the product they have to sell."
He added, "Julia Gillard and Labor should have no higher priority this year than to finally tackle the border protection crisis they have created. In what will soon be 15,000 unauthorized arrivals since Labor unwound the Coalition's proven policies and created this problem - it is time the Prime Minister adopts the solution that we know works and that we've held for a decade."
Bobby Castro
Bobby Castro is the online editor at the Australia Forum, where he has published a number of articles about Australia immigration news and many other topics.
View all articles by Bobby Castro