Background to the SIEV X
The background to 'Hope' lies in the dramatic events of the ten weeks leading up to John Howard's third Australian federal election victory on 10th November 2001. Those events were sparked on 26th August by the rescue of over 400 Afghani's from a boat called the Palapa by Captain Arne Rinnan and the crew of the Norwegian cargo boat the Tampa.
When Capt Rinnan attempted to land the asylum seekers on Christmas Island he was rebuffed by Australian Government orders. A tense stand-off resulted. The Howard Government was determined to halt the flow of boat people to the mainland of Australia where, under the policy of mandatory detention introduced by the previous Labour Government, immigration reception and processing centres such as that at Woomera were struggling to cope. This was the moment when the Government invoked its 'Pacific Solution'.
Eventually, the Afghani's were transferred to Nauru via the naval ship Manoora. The Government then announced its intention to turn boats containing asylum seekers back to Indonesia, towing them there if necessary. At the same time Operation Relex was launched with the purpose of conducting maritime surveillance and disrupting the people smugglers' operations.
It was in early October, soon after the events of '9/11' in New York, that during the towing by HMAS Adelaide of another crippled SIEV ('Suspected Illegal* Entry Vessel 4'), the Olong, the now notorious 'children overboard' incident occurred, precipitating more controversy. This incident and that of the Tampa are the events most Australians recall. But less than two weeks later, on October 19th, the SIEV which later became known as 'X for unknown' because it was never intercepted, sank en route to Christmas Island with the loss of 353 lives. It was the largest maritime disaster in our region since World War 2 and yet only 10% of the Australian population now say they've heard of it.
Many questions surrounding the SIEV X disaster remain unanswered. A Senate Committee which investigated the incident called for an independent inquiry into the Government's people smuggling disruption program, expressed surprise that the undetected sinking of the SIEV X caused no review of intelligence processes and called for a re-focus on the imperative to preserve the safety of lives at sea (SOLAS).
Between August and October 2001 a total of 12 SIEVs were tracked, intercepted and their passengers either returned to Indonesia or transferred to detention centres on Nauru and Manus Island. The SIEV X was the people smugglers' last attempt from Indonesia. By the time John Howard began his third term in office the boats had stopped coming. According to the book 'Dark Victory', we had managed to prevent about 2400 people from landing here at a cost to the taxpayer of around A$500 million.
Many of those people were wives and children desperate to join husbands who had already been accepted in Australia as genuine refugees. However, the Temporary Protection Visa system prevented the latter from sending for their relatives under the family reunion program. Amal Basry's was one such family.
* Note:
The Government's use of the term "illegal" has been questioned by those who point out that Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which Australia is a signatory, states that "Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution".
