The latest in Australia’s growing incidents of asylum seeker tragedies occurred on the weekend, when a boat bound for our shores sunk off the coast of Java on Saturday night. The boat held about 250 people from Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Turkey, including several women and children, despite the vessel’s capacity reported as a maximum of 100.
With well over 100 people feared dead en route to Australia, this tragedy forces the question as to whether the Australian Government has any blood on its hands, and whether policy changes or negotiations need to be made to prevent more human lives being lost in this way.
World migration expert Khalid Koser spoke recently at the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Sydney and panned the Government’s contentious Malaysia deal describing it as “high cost, low-benefit policy” and a “mistake”.
