Memorial held for victims of Australian boat wreck
A memorial service was held today on Australia’s Christmas Island for the victims of boat crash that left at least 30 people dead.
The private service on Sunday afternoon local time was attended by the survivors, immigration officials and a local Islamic leader, the immigration department said.
Further services are planned this week for the victims of Wednesday’s crash, which was survived by 42 people. Rescuers recovered the bodies of 30 men, women and children from the ocean.
Australian Federal Police Superintendent Gavan Ryan said about 15 bodies have been identified so far by surviving family members and friends who were either on the boat or were already in the island’s detention centre.
Officials say the boat could have held up to 100 Iraqi, Iranian and Kurdish passengers.
Mr Ryan said he believed more bodies could be in underwater caves near the crash site. “We are hoping by the end of tomorrow to have a definite answer of how many people are missing,” he said.
The tragedy has once again put the spotlight on the three-year-old Labour government’s struggle to come up with an effective refugee policy. Critics on both sides say the current approach encourages asylum seekers to undertake perilous sea journeys.
Opposition leader Tony Abbott called for the government to return to tougher refugee laws that he said would keep the boats from coming to Australia.
“It is important that we put policies in place as quickly as humanly possible that do offer the prospect of stopping the boats,” he told reporters in Sydney.
Mr Abbott’s coalition calls for a return to temporary visas for those who are approved as refugees, offshore processing of refugee applications and turning boats around in the ocean when it is safe to do so.
“There’s no one change that will of itself stop the boats from coming, but there is a range of policies that have been proven to work and we need to go back to (them),” Mr Abbott said.
In recent years, many asylum seekers have come from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Burma.
Generally, they first fly to Indonesia and then continue on to Australia by sea, often in small, rickety fishing boats with few provisions and no safety gear.
Christmas Island is closer to Indonesia than the Australian mainland and a frequent target of refugee hopefuls, who are housed in a detention centre there.
