As the death toll among asylum seekers making their way to Australia by sea climbs to 400 in the past three years, authorities should reform their operational protocols, writes Tony Kevin.
A year on from Australia’s deadliest shipwreck since 1890, we revisited our editorial from December 2010, written, as our opening line states, as they were "still pulling bodies from the water", as pieces of SIEV221 splintered across the rocks of Christmas Island.
In the dark reflection of the one-year anniversary of the shipwreck of SIEV 221 – the Christmas Island Boat Tragedy – it’s time to ask ourselves and each other: what have we learned? writes Peter Chambers.
We were all collectively horrified by the Christmas Island boat tragedy last December. All sides of politics had the good sense, and the decency, to say so. And now along comes Opposition immigration spokesperson Scott Morrison...
Questions have been raised about the preparedness of Australian Navy and Customs personnel in responding to last Wednesday's Christmas Island asylum-seeker boat wreck.
Vivid images of the wrecked boat sinking off the cliffs of Christmas Island provided a stark picture of the desperate, and often futile, measures people will go to to flee persecution. But quick as a flash, even as survivors were being pulled out of the water, media commentators from both sides of politics were searching for someone to blame over the tragedy.
Crikey readers have their say.
Sometimes it's easier to get a clear picture of things from some distance away...
Australian authorities were repeatedly warned over a lack of health services on Christmas Island to deal with a disaster in the mould of yesterday's boat tragedy, which has claimed the lives of at least 28 people.
They're still pulling bodies from the water.
