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Indonesia seeks crew of sunken asylum boat
by Staff Writers
Jakarta (UPI) Dec 20, 2011

Members of a search and rescue team continue to look for victims of a shinking boat in Watulimo on December 19, 2011. Australian police were drafted in on December 19 to help Indonesia investigate people-smugglers whose "callous disregard for human life" saw more than 200 asylum-seekers feared dead in a boat wreck off Java. Image courtesy AFP.

Indonesian police said they hope to find more crew members among people the authorities might rescue from the tragic ship sinking to question them about people smuggling activities.

Two suspected crew members are reportedly in custody and will be questioned by police.

Survivors claim the captain and crew of the boat put on life jackets and swam for their lives.

The Indonesian government said it will continue searching the waters off Java island where the boat carrying up to 400 asylum seekers went down 40 miles off the southeastern coast last weekend.

The number of people rescued is around 80 people after fishermen found 13 -- 12 men and one women -- washed up on the shores of Nusa Barong, around 150 miles east from where the overcrowded wooden boat sank in rough seas.

The 13 survivors were picked up by a coal ship off the island of Nusa Barong, a report by Indonesia's Tempo magazine said.

A spokesman for the national search and rescue agency said helicopters had spotted the group on the island of Barung and a boat had been dispatched to confirm the report.

"The effort is worth taking and we are not giving up on finding more survivors,'' a search and rescue official said.

Police said the two crew members, who allegedly abandoned the sinking ship in a dinghy, were found on the east Java mainland. They will be interviewed by police in an effort to discover the identity of the people-smuggling syndicate behind the boat which went down shortly after leaving for the Australian territory of Christmas Island.

Christmas Island is where Australia holds many thousands of illegal boat people who are trying to reach the mainland. The island is around 1,600 miles from the western Australian city of Perth but only 220 miles south of Jakarta.

Australia's Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare said the tragedy should make asylum seekers think twice before attempting the perilous crossing to Christmas Island.

Clare came under pressure from asylum policy critics who claim Australia isn't being tough enough on illegal immigrants, a report in The Age newspaper said. They claim the Labor government's continuation of onshore illegal refugee processing and the release of asylum seekers into the community is encouraging people to make the perilous sea journey.

Despite the hazards, survivors of the wreck have vowed they would try the crossing again. They also would gladly pay again the notorious people smugglers thousands of dollars for the voyage in unseaworthy and overcrowded vessels, a report by the Australian newspaper The Age said.

Dawood Waladbegi, an Iranian man Interviewed by Australian police and Indonesian authorities, said he doesn't know if his wife, two children, his brother and his family survived.

But even so, he would attempt the crossing again.

"We will go again by boat," The Age reported. "Let the Australian government know that,'' he said through an interpreter. ''I lost all my family members. I have no one here. I don't want this life.''

Most of the passengers are from Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Afghanistan. Some asked if they could be flown to Australia, New Zealand or the United States.

"We will do it again because we have nothing," said an ethnic Hazara, who speaks fluent English and used to work for the U.S. government's aid organization in Afghanistan.

"If we are going to die, responsibility will be with the Australian government."

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