On 15 December 2010, an Indonesian fishing boat (known as the Janga and referred to as SIEV-221 by Australian Government authorities) carrying 89 asylum seekers and 3 crew members sank after being dashed against the rocks near Rocky Point, Christmas Island, an external Australian territory. 50 people died and 42 were rescued. The incident was the worst civilian maritime disaster in Australia in more than a century.
Background
Christmas island is an external Australian territory located approximately 360 kilometers to the south of Java, Indonesia and 2,660 kilometers from the Australian mainland. The island is a frequent destination for asylum seekers seeking to claim asylum on Australian soil, due to its proximity to Indonesia, which serves as a key transit country for people smugglers and asylum seekers in the region.
SIEV-221 (known by the passengers as the Janga) was a wooden Indonesian fishing boat around 15 meters long, which had been stripped of most equipment. There was no safety equipment on board other than around 20 life jackets. The vessel had been experiencing engine problems, for which the crew unsuccessfully sought maintenance.
The vessel was crewed by four Indonesians. Three were fishermen with limited seafaring experience, who were offered the equivalent of $2,000 to work on the boat. A fourth acted as captain.
The passengers were a group of 89 asylum seekers mainly from Iraq and Iran. There were 58 men and 34 women on board, from at least 8 different family groups.
On the morning of 12 December 2010, passengers were collected from hotels in Jakarta, Indonesia where they had been waiting for the voyage. They were driven to a remote coastal location, and loaded onto two small boats which transported them out to sea where they boarded SIEV-221.
Passengers had been told SIEV-221 was comfortable, safe and well equipped. However, they discovered that conditions on board were cramped, with people crowded above and below deck, and only a hole in the deck to use as a toilet. No instructions were provided to passengers about how to use life jackets or what to do in the case of an emergency.
SIEV-221 departed from Jakarta for Christmas Island around midnight on 12 December 2010. The main engine failed at one point during the voyage, but the crew were able to re-start it. The captain abandoned the boat just before the final leg of the journey, transferring to another vessel trailing behind. He gave the remaining crew members basic directions to Christmas Island and said they would arrive in around 5 hours.
Incident
The shores of Christmas Island consist of jagged cliffs and, even in good weather, there are few locations where a boat can safely off-load passengers. The monsoon season meant the seas around the island were very rough on the morning of 15 December 2010, with wind speeds of 20 to 30 knots and wave height of up to 4 meters. The weather conditions restricted visibility to 150 meters. This was "amongst the worst weather ever experienced on the island".
SIEV-221 was first sighted by residents on Christmas island around 5:20am on 15 December. At that time the vessel appeared to be 400 to 600 meters away from the island and moving under its own motion. A trail of black smoke could be seen coming from its exhaust. It continued to make its way through heavy seas near the coast for around 40 minutes.
A number of residents phoned emergency services to report the presence of the vessel. Around the same time, passengers aboard SIEV-221 also began making emergency distress calls using their mobile phones, however Australian emergency services operators struggled to understand what passengers were saying due to language barriers.
Australian Customs and Border Protection vessels and ACV Triton were coincidentally nearby, sheltering from the weather to the east of Christmas Island. Both vessels were notified of the presence of SIEV-221 by customs officials around 5:45am and proceeded at full speed to intercept the boat.
Around 6:10am, the engine of SIEV-221 failed entirely and the crew were unable to re-start it. The vessel began to drift towards Rocky Point; an area where deep ocean swells strike against jagged cliffs and wash back out to sea, approximately 800 meters from where the vessel was first sighted. Christmas Island residents could hear passengers on SIEV-221 screaming and calling for help as waves pushed the boat closer to the rocks. Residents on the nearby clifftop captured amateur video footage of the entire incident.