Asylum Seekers Throw Kids Off Boat

By PETER O'CONNOR
.c The Associated Press

 
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) - A boatload of asylum seekers, turned away from Australia by a navy ship, threw children overboard in protest, Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock said Sunday.

Ruddock said a number of adults also jumped off the boat and into the ocean after it was intercepted Saturday night by the HMAS Adelaide, 130 miles from Australia's remote Christmas Island.

After it entered Australian waters, naval officers boarded the boat, which was estimated to be carrying about 300 people, and ordered it to return to international waters.

Soon after, people started jumping overboard and some threw their children, Ruddock told reporters.

``I regard this as one of the most disturbing practices I've come across,'' he told reporters.

Ruddock said the navy had rescued the people in the water, but said the refugees' actions were done ``with the intention of putting us under duress.''

Ruddock said ``it would be unfortunate'' if the protest led to loss of life, but reiterated that it would not change Australia's policy of refusing entry to asylum seekers. None of the ship's passengers will be allowed on to the Australian mainland, he said.

The boat came from Indonesia, but the nationality of the refugees wasn't immediately known.

In the past year more than 5,000 asylum seekers, mostly fleeing strife in the Middle East, and increasingly from Afghanistan, have come by boat to Australia via Indonesia with the help of people smuggling gangs.

In August, Prime Minister John Howard refused permission for a Norwegian cargo ship, the Tampa, to enter Australian waters after it saved 433 mostly Afghan asylum seekers from a sinking Indonesian ferry.

When the Tampa defied that order and steamed close to Christmas Island, Howard ordered 50 elite commandos to storm the ship and prevent the refugees from being landed on Australian soil.

The government's tough stance earned unprecedented international criticism, but Howard's popularity soared at home, positioning his government for a likely win in national elections scheduled for Nov. 10.