A group of more than 150 asylum seekers traveling by boat from Indonesia to Australia have been stuck at sea for more than three days. Designed to only hold 100 people, the boat was overloaded resulting in a crash off the coast of Java. Indonesian and Australian officials are working together through the wreckage in a bid to find survivors, however hopes are fading as worsening weather conditions make the rescue effort that much harder. So far nearly 50 survivors have been found; mostly men from Afghanistan and Iran who traveled from Dubai to Jakarta then took a bus journey to the dangerous boat crossing which would cost them their families and friends. Samin Gul Afghani, a seventeen year old student is among the survivors to have seen family members drown in the wreckage. “Many people did not know how to swim and were sitting on a large plank of wood from the wreckage. When the waves hit one side, we shifted to the other,” said Afghani. “They died in front of my eyes. I could do nothing to save them,” said Afghani after losing his 2 brothers and uncle. Indonesia is a popular transit point for asylum seekers from the Middle East making their way to Australia despite the known fact that accidents on route are common and in some cases inevitable as many take on dangerous journeys without safety equipment. This recent crash comes amid great pressure within Australia to restrict the number of asylum seekers arriving by boat through off shore processing, a bill which was heavily opposed by opposition parties. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/YqROj Tags: Asylum Seekers, Australia, Boat, Indonesia, Refugees Section: Human Rights, Latest News, Oceana
