EPA

A new arrival sails into stormy waters

AT FIRST the fishing boat crammed with 47 asylum-seekers, mostly Afghans, seemed like similar vessels turning up lately in north-western Australia's waters. Then, on April 16th, it exploded. Three asylum-seekers drowned fleeing the inferno. Two are still missing. Together with another boat arrival on April 22nd, the drama has inflamed a political conflict on a subject many Australians thought they had put to rest: their tolerance for refugees escaping strife in countries to the north.

The explosion also posed the first test of the promise by Kevin Rudd, the Labor prime minister, of a more humane approach to refugees. Reports soon emerged of fuel being poured on deck. Speculation followed that the fire was either an accident, or sabotage by people alarmed that hovering Australian navy ships might send them back to Indonesia, where they embarked. Mr Rudd said such guesses compromised possible prosecutions of people smugglers. Earlier, he had called them “the lowest form of life”. Police in the Northern Territory say their report on the case could take months.

Mr Rudd's main target, though, was a turbulent legacy left by John Howard, his conservative predecessor. Mr Howard exploited public anxiety about boat arrivals to help win an election in 2001. He and his ministers claimed asylum-seekers on one boat had thrown their children into the sea to intimidate the authorities. The claim was later proved false. The Rudd government has dropped two of Mr Howard's approaches: sending people to camps in Pacific island-nations while their asylum bids were assessed; and granting approved refugees restrictive, three-year visas.

Since the changes, the number of arriving boats has climbed: 14 in 2008-09 compared with three the previous year. But boat people comprised only a fraction of the 4,750 asylum applications Australia received last year, a small enough number compared with those in some other rich countries. In any case John Gibson, president of the Refugee Council of Australia, an NGO, argues the old temporary visas drew more, not fewer, boat people. He says many of the 353 people who drowned on one boat in October 2001 were Afghan and Iraqi women and children trying to reach men in Australia whose temporary visas shut their families out.

There are signs Australians' attitudes have softened since then. In an opinion poll on April 20th, 57% thought tougher policies would not deter boat people. Pictures of doctors treating 40-odd people from the blazing boat have humanised their plight. Much improved relations with Indonesia should promise stronger action against people smugglers. Indonesia agreed this week to extradite Hadi Ahmadi, whom Australia wants to prosecute for his alleged involvement in four boat arrivals involving 900 people in 2001.