Search on for Rohingya asylum seekers on Christmas Island

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison. Photo: Tamara Dean.

06 December 2103

Australian federal police are searching heavy jungle on Christmas Island for nine asylum seekers believed to be part of a group that camped undetected on a beach after their boat sank.

The asylum seeker boat is believed to be one of four boats to have arrived on the island in the past five days.

Christmas Island councillor Gordon Thomson said two vessels arrived in the past 24 hours, while another carrying about 30 passengers was intercepted off Christmas Island on Sunday.

About 28 Rohingya asylum seekers are believed to have spent three days camped out on a Christmas Island beach unnoticed, eating crabs and coconuts to survive.

A spokesman for Immigration minister Scott Morrison said the asylum seekers came ashore on Monday and “no persons are believed to have been lost at sea”.

Of the group, 19 have been accounted for, the Immigration Minister’s spokesman said in a rare press release issued about midnight on Thursday.

Dolly Beach: where the asylum seekers had been camping. Photo: Supplied

Mr Morrison is expected to conduct his weekly Operation Sovereign Borders briefing on Friday.

Eight people including two crew are housed at the Phosphate Hill facility in the care of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, the spokesman said. One person is in the Christmas Island Hospital in a stable condition “after sustaining minor injuries” and five “are currently being escorted by AFP officers for transfer to the Phosphate Hill facility”.

“A further nine other persons are believed to be in heavy jungle approximately 50 minutes’ walk away from the nearest road," the Immigration Minister’s spokesman said.

"A search is under way for the individuals, co-ordinated by the AFP".

The search, the spokesman said in the press release, "will resume at first light Friday".

Christmas Island councillor Mr Thomson said the asylum seekers had been camping on Dolly Beach for three days.

"They walked [out] along a very steep track for about six kilometres. They found themselves on one of our main roads where they were seen and police and custom officers scrambled to pick them up."

Thousands of Rohingya, a Muslim minority group in Myanmar, have fled persecution and oppression since last year.

Labor’s immigration spokesman Richard Marles said the government was failing to uphold its promise to bring the “discipline and focus of a targeted military operation” to the asylum seeker issue.

“The question today is with all of that focus and discipline how is it possible that a boat arrived on Christmas Island without detection?” Mr Marles said.

“How is it possible that asylum seekers could be on Christmas Island since Monday without the government knowing about it?

“What is clear is the government is not in control.”

with AAP

http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/search-on-for-rohingya-asylum-seekers-on-christmas-island-20131205-2ytr5.html