Fed: Key incidents involving boatloads of asylum seekers

AAP General News (Australia)
04-16-2009
Fed: Key incidents involving boatloads of asylum seekers

CANBERRA, April 16 AAP - Key dates involving asylum seekers:



2009

April 16 - Explosion on a boat carrying asylum seekers off northern Australia, killing
at least three people, with two missing. Many more injured. Speculation boat was doused
with petrol by asylum seekers before explosion. Boat is sixth to arrive in Australia in
2009.



2008

Nov 19 - Boat rescued by navy while sinking about 80 nautical miles from Ashmore Islands,
off Australia's northwest coast, with 12 asylum seekers aboard. One of seven boats intercepted
in Australian waters in 2008.

July 29 - Immigration Minister Chris Evans announces Labor will rip up the former Howard
government's immigration detention policy. Asylum seekers are still processed offshore
but will only be detained if they pose a risk to the community.



2007

Nov 20 - Navy rescues 16 Indonesians including three men, three women and 10 children,
from leaking boat in the Timor Sea.

Feb 10 - Group of 85 asylum seekers, most from Sri Lanka, intercepted on a boat heading
to Christmas Island.



2001

Oct 19 - 353 people, including 146 children, drown when SIEV X sinks in the Indian
Ocean during the federal election campaign; 44 survivors spend 22 hours in the water when
an Australian navy ship could have been there in a few hours. Then prime minister John
Howard subsequently found to have misled the public over claims asylum seekers had thrown
their children overboard.

Aug 26 - John Howard turns away the freighter ship Tampa, carrying 433 asylum seekers.

The ship is seized by authorities before being able to dock at Christmas Island. Most
of the asylum seekers taken to Nauru to be processed, while more than 100 are granted
asylum in New Zealand.



AAP mj/kms/tnf/jlw

KEYWORD: BOAT FACTBOX

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