Boat sinks off indonesia: 9 dead

Rescuers were searching Wednesday for several asylum seekers still believed missing a day after their boat sank in Indonesian waters on the way to Australia. Nearly 190 survivors were brought to safety and nine bodies were recovered.

The incident comes days after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd changed Australia’s refugee policy so that people who arrive by boat will no longer be allowed to settle in the country. The move was a response to domestic political pressure and a string of accidents involving rickety boats packed with asylum seekers bound for Australia. Local police chief Lt. Col. Dedy Kusuma said 189 people were rescued and nine bodies were recovered after the tugboat sank Tuesday night about 5 kilometers (3 miles) off the coast of West Java’s Cianjur district. It was not clear how many people were missing. West Java police spokesman Col. Martinus Sitompul said the survivors included a pregnant Sri Lankan woman who was being treated at a health center in the town of Cidaun. A baby boy and a 10-year-old girl were among the dead. Sitompul said the group was believed to consist of around 204 migrants from Sri Lanka, Iran and Iraq. They departed Tuesday morning from Jayanti, a coastal town in Cianjur, using a smaller boat that was supposed to meet a larger ship at sea to complete the journey to Australia. Their overloaded boat, built to carry only 150 passengers, sank about nine hours into the trip due to a leak. Some of the migrants scrambled for the lifeboat, while others swam before being rescued, he said, citing Iraqi survivor Ali Akbar. Search for the remaining migrants believed missing would continue, involving police, fishermen and local villagers. The asylum seeker issue has been a longstanding dilemma for both Indonesia and Australia. Last week, Indonesia decided to stop issuing visas on arrival to Iranians because a growing number of them have been caught smuggling drugs or using Indonesia as a transit point for seeking asylum in Australia.