Asylum seekers 'throw children overboard'
A boatload of asylum seekers turned away from Australia by a navy ship had thrown children overboard in protest, Australian Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock said today.
Ruddock said a number of adults had also jumped off the vessel into the ocean after it was intercepted late last night by the HMAS Adelaide, 120 nautical miles (130 miles) from the remote Australian Indian Ocean territory of Christmas Island.
After it entered Australian waters, naval officers boarded the boat, which was estimated to be carrying about 300 people, and ordered it to return to international waters.
Soon after, people started jumping overboard and some threw their children, Ruddock told reporters.
‘‘I regard this as one of the most disturbing practices I’ve come across,’’ he told reporters.
Ruddock said the navy had rescued the people in the water, but said the refugees’ actions were done ‘‘with the intention of putting us under duress’’.
Ruddock said ‘‘it would be unfortunate’’ if the protest led to loss of life, but reiterated that it would not change Australia’s policy of refusing entry to asylum seekers. None of the ship’s passengers will be allowed on to the Australian mainland, he said.
The boat had come from Indonesia, but the nationality of the refugees was not immediately known.
In the past year more than 5,000 asylum seekers, mostly fleeing human catastrophes in the Middle East, and increasingly from Afghanistan, have come by boat to Australia via Indonesia with the help of people smuggling gangs.
In August, Prime Minister John Howard refused permission for a Norwegian cargo ship, the Tampa, to enter Australian waters after it saved 433 mostly Afghan asylum seekers from a sinking Indonesian ferry.
When the Tampa defied that order and steamed close to Christmas Island, Howard ordered 50 elite commandos to storm the ship and prevent the refugees from being landed on Australian soil.
The Government’s tough stance earned unprecedented international criticism, but Howard’s popularity soared at home, positioning his government to win a third term at national elections scheduled for Nov. 10.
Campaigning in Sydney today, Howard remained firm in the Government’s new policy, claiming the navy personnel were acting in a humane way.
‘‘But our policy remains quite resolute. We are not going to be intimidated out of our policy by this kind of behavior,’’ Howard told reporters.
