Nine suspected asylum seekers found dead off Christmas Island

Updated

Nine suspected asylum seekers are dead and a search is continuing for more people in waters off Western Australia's north coast.

A massive air and sea search is underway in the hope of finding anyone alive after a suspected asylum seeker boat sank 65 nautical miles north-west of Christmas Island.

Customs and Border Protection officials say nine people have been found dead.

It is understood 60 people were on board the vessel.

An RAAF plane spotted the submerged hull of the boat late on Friday and found bodies in the water yesterday afternoon.

Key points Bodies of at least nine suspected asylum seekers have been found

Air and sea search underway after the boat sank about 65 nautical miles north-west of Christmas Island

It is understood 60 people were on board the vessel

Australian Maritime Safety Authority has been coordinating the search since Friday morning

HMAS Warramunga, two merchant ships, two border protection planes and a private aircraft are conducting the search

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority has been coordinating the search since Friday morning after an irregular boat was seen heading towards the island.

The HMAS Warramunga and two merchant ships are leading the search, alongside two border protection planes and one private aircraft.

Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare has travelled to Canberra for a personal briefing on the operation.

A spokesman for Indonesia's rescue agency, Basarnas, says it has not heard about the asylum seeker boat sinking.

Didi Hamzah said he was aware of only one rescue operation, in which 100 asylum seekers were found in the water close to the Java coast by Indonesian rescuers.

He said they were located near Cilacap and are now being dealt with by Indonesian immigration authorities and the International Organisation for Migration.

Victoria Martin from the Refugees Rights Action Network says the tragedy is more evidence the Government should change its border protection policy to encourage the safe resettlement of refugees in Australia.

"Our deterrence policies are not doing what they intended to do, they are not stopping people from taking dangerous journeys here," she said.

"The Australian Government really needs to stop seeing this as a border security issue and recognise we have international obligations, over 90 per cent of people who come by boat are found to be refugees and will get permanent residence in Australia.

"Rather than spending upwards of $350,000 per person to detain people on Nauru and Manus Island, we could be looking at mechanisms that would assist in settling people throughout the region."

In a separate incident, the ABC has been told more than 70 asylum seekers were rescued from their stricken boat off Cocos Island on Thursday.

They were picked up by a tanker which is heading to Christmas Island and is expected to arrive today.

There has been a steady stream of asylum seeker boats in recent months.

The last major incident was in March when two asylum seekers died and more than 90 rescued.

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Topics: refugees, immigration, community-and-society, maritime, accidents, disasters-and-accidents, christmas-island-6798, asia

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