Jakarta Globe – AFP, Jun 17, 2014
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| Asylum-seekers arrive in 2013 at the Christmas Island settlement area, where they will be detained for an indefinite period until their refugee status can be determined. Families of asylum-seekers killed in a shipwreck off Australia’s Christmas Island in 2010 are suing the government, AFP reported. (Photo courtesy of the Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship) |
Sydney.
Families of asylum-seekers killed in a shipwreck off Australia’s Christmas
Island in 2010 are suing the government, arguing it breached its duty of care
in a move Canberra on Tuesday blasted as “shameful”.
Fifty
people died when a rickety fishing boat crowded with nearly 100 Iraqi, Kurdish
and Iranian asylum-seekers was dashed against jagged rocks in dangerous seas at
the remote Indian Ocean outpost.
Human
rights lawyer George Newhouse has launched legal action in the New South Wales
state Supreme Court on behalf of eight families, claiming the government failed
to maintain a proper lookout.
“We believe
that the evidence will show that the Commonwealth knew, or should have known,
that there were vulnerable men, women and children that were on the high seas
in a storm and took insufficient steps to look out for them,” he said in a
statement.
He also
claimed that when authorities found out the boat was foundering, the systems in
place and operational life-saving vessels to rescue them were not adequate.
At the time
authorities said they were not aware the boat was approaching Christmas Island due
to the predawn darkness and “extreme” weather conditions.
Woken near
dawn by the screams of victims, locals gathered life jackets and rushed to the
sheer limestone cliffs to offer help, but strong winds blew the flotation
devices back onshore.
The terrified
group on board drifted for about an hour after losing engine power and only one
man managed to leap to safety before the surging waves smashed the vessel apart
on the rocks.
Fifty
people died and 42 were rescued by the Navy and customs and border protection
officials.
Immigration
Minister Scott Morrison defended the government’s actions.
“Frankly, I
think this is a shameful and offensive claim to be making,” he told reporters.
“Sure, people have the right to bring cases to court — we are a free country —
but they have to be accountable for the claims.
“This is
like someone who has been saved from a fire suing the firemen,” he added.
After an
eight-month hearing coroner Alastair Hope laid the blame for the tragedy firmly
on the people-smugglers who organized the trip.
But he also
criticized Australian authorities for the lack of adequate rescue vessels on
the island.
Hundreds of
people have died making the perilous sea journey to Australia, although no boat
has arrived in nearly six months under the government’s harsh new policies.
Boats are
now turned back at sea, mostly to Indonesia, while anyone arriving is sent to
camps in Nauru or Papua New Guinea for processing and permanent resettlement.
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