TWO female and 58 male
asylum-seekers were in detention on Christmas Island last night after a
drama on the high seas that ended with safe passage to Australia aboard
the armed patrol vessel Oceanic Protector.
While asylum-seekers who make it across the Java trench undetected
are often bedraggled and marked with engine grease, the men and women
taken aboard the 8500-tonne Customs vessel last Friday had time to
shower and put on clean clothes before stepping in front of cameras at
the Christmas Island jetty shortly after 8am yesterday.
One man arrived dressed as a one-day cricketer, head to toe in distinctive gold with the word "Australia" across his chest.
As he stopped to be searched, immigration workers engaged the man in banter and asked him if he was a spin bowler.
He
apparently replied that he was better at bowling fast, which prompted
some enthusiastic speculation about him online yesterday.
The only child seen by onlookers at the jetty yesterday was a baby-faced Indonesian boy, who has told authorities he is 15.
He
was among three crew members who arrived alongside the paying asylum
boat passengers, bringing the total number caught up in the standoff to
63.
It has long been a tactic of people-smugglers to recruit
teenaged crew from poor fishing communities, often in East Nusa Tenggara
and West Java.
Australia's treatment of those claiming to be
underage has caused political tensions with Indonesia, and attempts were
made to shield the boy as he was ferried ashore.
Immigration
Minister Scott Morrison has said he accepted Indonesia's refusal to take
the asylum-seekers back "in the best interests of the safety of the
passengers and the crew", but last night there was no elaboration about
the danger they were in.
source.: The Australian
asylum-seekers were in detention on Christmas Island last night after a
drama on the high seas that ended with safe passage to Australia aboard
the armed patrol vessel Oceanic Protector.
While asylum-seekers who make it across the Java trench undetected
are often bedraggled and marked with engine grease, the men and women
taken aboard the 8500-tonne Customs vessel last Friday had time to
shower and put on clean clothes before stepping in front of cameras at
the Christmas Island jetty shortly after 8am yesterday.
One man arrived dressed as a one-day cricketer, head to toe in distinctive gold with the word "Australia" across his chest.
As he stopped to be searched, immigration workers engaged the man in banter and asked him if he was a spin bowler.
He
apparently replied that he was better at bowling fast, which prompted
some enthusiastic speculation about him online yesterday.
The only child seen by onlookers at the jetty yesterday was a baby-faced Indonesian boy, who has told authorities he is 15.
He
was among three crew members who arrived alongside the paying asylum
boat passengers, bringing the total number caught up in the standoff to
63.
It has long been a tactic of people-smugglers to recruit
teenaged crew from poor fishing communities, often in East Nusa Tenggara
and West Java.
Australia's treatment of those claiming to be
underage has caused political tensions with Indonesia, and attempts were
made to shield the boy as he was ferried ashore.
Immigration
Minister Scott Morrison has said he accepted Indonesia's refusal to take
the asylum-seekers back "in the best interests of the safety of the
passengers and the crew", but last night there was no elaboration about
the danger they were in.
source.: The Australian
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