EARLY on December 15th residents of Christmas Island, an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean, were woken by cries for help from the surging seas off Flying Fish Cove. Some dashed to the headland, only to watch helplessly as a wooden boat carrying as many as 100 asylum-seekers smashed against rocks. At least 28 people, including women and children, drowned. Julia Gillard, the prime minister, cancelled her Christmas holiday to oversee a tragedy that has reignited a political row over asylum-seekers arriving in Australia by boat.

Like many boats before that have reached land safely, the wrecked vessel is thought to have set out from Indonesia. Those on board were believed to be mainly from Iraq and Iran. Christmas Island's 1,400 residents are outnumbered by more than 2,700 asylum-seekers housed in a centre for boat people who have been intercepted on their way to Australia. They are held there while their asylum bids are considered, which is often a lengthy process. The inmates' swelling numbers have forced the authorities to start detaining some of them on the Australian mainland.

The issue has roiled Australian politics for a decade. In 2001 the former conservative government under John Howard brought in a so-called “Pacific solution”, involving the dispatch of boat arrivals to camps in third countries such as Papua New Guinea and the island state of Nauru. Two years ago, the succeeding Labor government began processing arrivals on Christmas Island instead. Government critics say this has encouraged more to try. Others say the surge over the past year simply reflects greater numbers fleeing conflict zones.

Ms Gillard has called for a regional processing centre to be set up in Timor-Leste, but has won little support. In November the Australian High Court added to her problems by ruling against bipartisan legislation that had excised Christmas Island and other offshore places from Australia's migration zone. The legislation meant that boat people arriving on the island could not apply for visas. The boat tragedy could strengthen the case for closing the island's processing centre altogether. With its vast, uninhabited coastline, mainland Australia would seem to have ample room to take over the task itself.