Australia launches criminal investigation into Christmas Island wreck
Australia is launching a criminal investigation into yesterday’s Christmas Island shipwreck which left at lest 28 people dead, under people trafficking laws.
Prime minister Julia Gillard said more bodies are expected to be recovered from sea after a boat carrying suspected asylum seekers crashed into rocks. She said the boat may have been carrying more than the 70 passengers actually thought. Forty-two people were rescued after the boat got dismantled.
Seven children - including four babies - have been confirmed among the dead.
Australia's asylum seeker debate is often conducted as if the people heading for its shores were an abstraction, using the term "boat people" which almost detracts from the human meaning.
The disaster escalated the boat people debate, although the country's politicians have temporarily called a truce in respect for the dead. Whatever its outcome, after the tragedy on Christmas Island the debate has a human face.
"We do not know with any certainty how many people there were on the boat so we've got to prepare ourselves for the likelihood that more bodies will be found and that there has been further loss of life than we know now with the numbers available to us," Gillard said.
Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said as many as 100 people may have been on board - some 30 more than originally believed.
The passengers of the frail wooden boat are believed to have been asylum seekers making their way to Australia via Indonesia.
Australia’s policy of how to handle immigration remains a sensitive one and Gillard called on the opposition to join a bipartisan inquiry into the tragedy.
