Frantic quest for asylum-seekers

Frantic quest for asylum-seekers | The Australian

Paul Maley and Stephen Fitzpatrick | July 10, 2009
Article from: The Australian

AUSTRALIAN officials were last night frantically trying to ascertain the fate of up to 74 asylum-seekers aboard a stricken fishing boat, after Foreign Minister Stephen Smith conceded reports that the Indonesian navy had rescued the boat were wrong.

Mr Smith's admission came as Indonesian officials expressed frustration over what they described as "inaccurate" information from the Australian Federal Police regarding the boat's supposed sinking.

In a statement released late last night, Mr Smith said an assurance he offered on the ABC's Lateline program 24 hours earlier -- that the boat had been rescued after the AFP tipped off Indonesian authorities -- was wrong.

Mr Smith said his advice was based on reports conveyed by the Indonesians to Australian officials in Jakarta.

He conceded that Australian officials had no idea what had become of the Australia-bound vessel, understood to contain a number of women and children.

Mr Smith's comments mark the latest chapter in an extraordinary rescue attempt, which began with a text message sent by one of the boat's passengers to a contact in Pakistan.

That message was then relayed to Australian refugee advocate Ian Rintoul, who, after contacting passengers aboard the boat, alerted Australia's Border Protection Command.

Border Protection Command is understood to have alerted the AFP, who sent a text message to Indonesian authorities.

Border Protection Command yesterday refused to confirm it had been contacted by Mr Rintoul.

The AFP confirmed it was aware of reports of a vessel in distress but declined to comment further, saying the incident occurred in Indonesian waters and was the responsibility of Indonesian authorities.

Mr Rintoul said he had three conversations with passengers on the boat after he received the message at 5am on Wednesday.

"They kept saying, 'We need help, we need help, there are people in distress, we're taking on water," Mr Rintoul told The Australian.

"I kept saying, 'Where are you, where are you?' but I couldn't make any sense of it."

Mr Rintoul said he received four or five text messages from one of the passengers.

The last one read: "I dont know da location. My mb has no power now. I cnt contact u anymore. May God help us."

Mr Rintoul said he had since received a text message from his contact in Pakistan, who had been in contact with passengers aboard the boat.

The passengers said they were on an island, indicating the boat made land and did not sink.

That conclusion was supported by Indonesian authorities, who said yesterday they had called off their search for the 74 Afghans and Indonesian boat crew members.

Okto George Riwu, from police headquarters in East Nusa Tenggara province, where the asylum-seekers were reported to have landed, described the situation as "confusing".

"The information we received was certainly inaccurate," Mr Riwu said. "We conducted our search and rescue operation based on what it said, and didn't find anything. All the islands in this area have been thoroughly combed."