The latest boat disaster off Java is proof the federal government's policies are risking lives, lawyers acting for survivors of the Christmas Island boat crash say.
A wooden boat packed with up to 300 asylum seekers sank off the Indonesian island on Saturday, with only 33 people rescued.
George Newhouse, of Shine Lawyers, said he had seen the suffering of the survivors of the SIEV 221 tragedy a year ago, in which up to 50 asylum seekers died when their wooden boat crashed into rocks after losing engine power.
He said heavy penalties for people smuggling meant the smugglers often hired untrained "stooges", many of them children, who had no idea what they were doing.
"To make matters worse, the government's policy of confiscating boats means the vessels which are used to transport asylum seekers are often unseaworthy - with disastrous results," he said.
"Just a year ago we saw the worst Australian shipping disaster in living memory when the engine broke down on SIEV 221 and the young unskilled crew had no idea what they were doing or where they were going.
"I have seen the suffering of the survivors and the relatives of SIEV 221 disaster and one can only imagine the horror that those on the latest boat faced as it sank off Indonesia yesterday."
Mr Newhouse said the government's currently policies urgently needed to be overhauled to ensure that politics wasn't putting lives at risk.
Front page
RSS Feed