There are conflicting reports about the number of asylum seekers missing off Indonesia, with no official search yet to be launched.

One report claims about 60 Afghan people are missing after their boat sank off the coast of Java.

The report added 14 asylum seekers were rescued by fishermen after their boat, carrying more than 70 people, hit rocks and sank.

But an Indonesian search and rescue official says they suspect claims 14 people were rescued from a sinking asylum seeker boat may have been a hoax to allow the asylum seekers to get ashore and flee without being arrested as illegal immigrants.



On Friday morning the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) was alerted to a vessel that was sinking in a strip of water between Java and Sumatra.

AMSA informed the Indonesian rescue agency Basarnas, but last night it still had not launched a search because there were no specific coordinates for the vessel.

Rescue crews said they were on "standby", but one team said they still did not have any idea where the boat was.

As Indonesia correspondent George Roberts explains, the details are still unclear.

"There are various reports coming through that about 60 people are missing and there might have been as many as 72 people on board that boat, or perhaps more, or that 14 people were plucked from the sea by fishermen," he said.

"It's hard to know whether that is the case. One of the people that had been quoted by the news wires said that the boat in fact sank on Wednesday.

"That matches up with information we were given yesterday by local authorities that said a separate boat had run aground about three days ago.

"So it's hard to know whether the people being quoted by some of the news wires are from the boat AMSA was concerned about yesterday or a separate boat."

Roberts says there may have been multiple boats heading towards the mainland overnight.

There are also unconfirmed reports that at least five people are dead following the incident in the Sunda Strait, on the way from Indonesia to Australia.

One of those rescued has told reporters he was in the water for 24 hours before help arrived.

The man also said all those on the vessel were ethnic Hazara from Afghanistan and they were heading for Christmas Island.

The incident comes less than a week after a boat carrying more than 60 asylum seekers arrived at Geraldton, in Western Australia's mid-west.

Last year the Australian Government announced an agreement with Indonesia to better coordinate search and rescue operations.

It came after scores of people drowned when a boat sank in the same area of the Sunda Strait and Basarnas said it was unable to help.

But Roberts says today's incident highlights that coordination between Australia and Indonesia remains a problem.

"All we have been able to find out so far - unless things have changed since late last night - AMSA wasn't helping yet or Australian authorities weren't helping yet and Indonesian hadn't launched its own search," he said.

"It seems to be the same stand-off we had last year where Australia knew there was a problem, Indonesia was capable of being able to help and as a result people are left in the water for hours on end."