Asylum seekers towed back in lifeboat: New video emerges as Defence Minister criticises ABC

Updated

The first video of what appears to be a lifeboat full of asylum seekers being towed by an Australian vessel under Operation Sovereign Borders has been obtained by the ABC.

The video, received from Indonesian sources, appears to have been filmed from inside an orange lifeboat which is being towed by the Australian Customs patrol boat Triton on the high seas.

At least one young child can be seen on board the lifeboat and another large vessel can be seen nearby. A rigid hulled inflatable boat can also be seen alongside.

It is believed the same lifeboat arrived in Pangandaran on the southern coast of Java on Wednesday night.

The Indonesian navy says there were 34 asylum seekers on board the boat.

This is the second lifeboat found in Indonesia.

The Australian Government has confirmed it has purchased life boats, but has not confirmed how many. Each is believed to cost at least $70,000.

In other developments:

Lifeboat arrives on Java: asylum seekers say they were nearly at Christmas Island before being intercepted

The asylum seekers on board the lifeboat which turned up on the Javanese coast say they made it close to Christmas Island when the Australian Navy intercepted them.

All but two were transferred onto the lifeboat and sent back to Indonesia, where it beached on Wednesday evening.

Passengers say two people resisted the Navy's attempt to put them on the lifeboat, so they were not returned to Indonesia.

Earlier this week Mr Morrison said two asylum seekers had been transferred for medical treatment, one of them for a heart condition.

It is not clear if they are the same two people who were not sent back on this boat.

The life boats have navigational equipment and a diesel motor that can reach the Indonesian coast once the vessel is in Indonesian waters.

"[They] bring us in the Indonesian water in the ocean and then put us in the orange boat and close the door, lock the door, and the Navy escort us until Indonesian water and they return us back to Indonesia," said one man on the video.

Youngest person on lifeboat was 18 months old, sources say

Indonesian sources have told the ABC those on board came from Iran, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, and say the youngest aboard was 18 months old.

The men heard in the video are speaking Farsi.

Although they say they are not sure what day it is, the passengers identify the time of the operation as the first week of February.

They claim they have been in custody for a week.

The asylum seekers appear to be in good health, but complain they have not been given access to washing or toilet facilities.

"They didn't let us go to the bathroom. They haven't even let us wash our face," a man on the boat says.

Indonesia's foreign minister takes swipe at Australian policy

Indonesia's foreign minister Marty Natalegawa has repeated his concerns about Australia's policies in the wake of the lifeboat's arrival.

"This kind of policy of transferring people from one boat to another and then directing them back to Indonesia is not really helpful," he said.

Indonesia's navy held a meeting this week to discuss the boat turn-backs and has decided to boost personnel numbers on Java's southern coast.

Fresh Fairfax report repeats claims about hand-burning incident

Fairfax Media has published a story in which a man says he saw Australian personnel deliberately holding three men's hands to a hot exhaust pipe during a tow-back operation in January.

Sorry, this video has expired Video: Fairfax journalist Michael Bachelard speaks to ABC News Breakfast (ABC News)

The article, written by Fairfax's Indonesia correspondent Michael Bachelard, quotes a man identified as Yousif Ibrahim Fasher as saying the burns were inflicted as punishment for protesting, and to deter other asylum seekers from asking to go to the toilet.

The claims the asylum seekers had their hands burned were reported by the ABC on January 22, prompting criticism of the national broadcaster from the Federal Government and some sections of the media.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has rejected the claims as "malicious and unfounded slurs". He said they were "rigorously assessed" at the time they were made.

"[The Government] rejects outright any allegations of unprofessional conduct by our people serving in Operation Sovereign Borders," he said.

"If media outlets wish to give credibility by publishing such unsubstantiated claims, that is a matter for them."

Defence Minister criticises ABC over coverage

Defence Minister David Johnston says he is extremely angry about the ABC's coverage of stories about the Navy's treatment of asylum seekers, saying he has not commented before now because he needed time to cool off.

"The good men and women of the Royal Australian Navy have been maliciously maligned by the ABC and I am very dissatisfied with the weasel words of apology that have been floated around by senior management of the ABC," he said.

The Defence Minister said Customs and the Navy had saved "thousands of lives" between Christmas Island and Java over the last four years.

"My people have been spat on, abused, treated like servants, and have endured all of that to save more than a thousand lives, and yet they've also had to endure the horror of fishing out hundreds of people floating dead in the water," he said.

"I am absolutely sick to the stomach that this Australian iconic news agency would attack the Navy in the way that it has."

He described the Navy as "heroes", and called for an investigation into the ABC.

"If ever there was an event that justified a detailed inquiry, some reform, an investigation of the ABC, this event is it. They themselves have cast a giant shadow over the veracity of their reporting and yet they've besmirched these hard-working people," he said.

ABC managing director Mark Scott on Thursday stood by the broadcaster's reporting of asylum seeker allegations against the Navy, and resisted calls to apologise.

Yesterday Prime Minister Tony Abbott rejected calls for the Navy to release photos or videos to show exactly what has happened during operations to intercept asylum seekers.

Asked if releasing footage could dispel ambiguity, Mr Abbott said it might also help people smugglers.

"I have nothing but respect for them," he said of the Australian Navy and Customs personnel.

"They are doing a fine job, often under difficult circumstances. They act in accordance with the humanity which you would expect of Australian military and service personnel and I have seen nothing that credibly casts doubts upon that professionalism."

He says it has now been 50 days since an asylum seeker boat arrived in Australia.

Shorten accuses Government of 'hiding behind' military

Federal Opposition leader Bill Shorten says the Government is setting the military up to fail by insisting on secrecy about asylum seeker interceptions.

In a comment likely to infuriate the Government, he accused it of hiding behind the military uniforms.

"The Navy do a tough job but their job is made even tougher when you've got a Federal Government hiding behind the uniforms not standing up for them," he said.

"What we need here is to forget the secrecy. The Australian people will give a fair bit of slack to governments provided they are up front with the Australian people. It's time to end the secrecy - and its time to stop leaving our Navy out on their own.

"It is not good enough for the Abbott Government to only come into sight when they've got a photo opportunity and then disappear like a submarine on every other issue."

Topics: navy, defence-forces, immigration, government-and-politics, federal-government, australia, indonesia

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