onlines traffic

2leep.com

Monday, December 20, 2010

Asylum-seeker disaster death toll may be as high as 48

Asylum-seeker disaster death toll may be as high as 48: UP to 18 people remain unaccounted for after the Christmas Island asylum-seeker disaster, Julia Gillard said today.

The Prime Minister said according to the latest estimates, there were 90 people aboard the Indonesian fishing boat which smashed into rocks and broke up at Christmas Island last Wednesday.

Thirty bodies have been recovered and 42 Iraqi, Iranian or Kurdish asylum-seekers survived the disaster.

The latest estimate means the death toll may climb as high as 48.

Authorities called off the air and sea search for more missing people on Friday.

Ms Gillard said although a figure of 90 was the latest, best estimate, authorities may never know with any certainty how many people were aboard the boat.

She said of the injured, only one person remained in hospital, in Perth.

Ms Gillard also said the government had no plans to lift Australia's humanitarian intake in order to reduce the numbers resorting to people smugglers.

“Obviously the government takes decisions about immigration numbers in all classes from time to time, but we have got no plans to do that,” she said.


“The people-smuggling business model will be there for however long people think to themselves if they pay a people-smuggler and risk their life at sea, that they will be processed and dealt with in a different way than if they stay where they are,” she said.

Ms Gillard said the regional protection framework and proposed regional processing centre was about smashing that business model.

“It's about saying to people, you get on the boat, particularly a people smuggler's, risk you life at sea, even when you reach Australia, what will happen is you are returned to the regional processing centre,” she said.

“So you do not get an advantage by having paid a people-smuggler. That is our aim.”

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Twitter Delicious Facebook Digg Stumbleupon Favorites More