Eight people still unaccounted for and one baby confirmed dead after vessel foundered north of Christmas Island
Authorities have called off the search and rescue mission for eight people still missing after a boat carrying 97 asylum seekers sank north of Christmas Island on Friday night. The body of a boy less than a year old was recovered by Australian search and rescue teams.
The Australian Maritime Search and Rescue Authority decided to end the air and water search for the missing eight people at 9.56pm AEST on Saturday, "based on the high probability that anyone alive would have been found during the day and on medical advice on survivability", the authority said in a statement.
The department of immigration and citizenship told Guardian Australia the survivors had arrived on Christmas Island and were awaiting processing.
"We have provided psychological support and counselling to whoever needs it," a spokesman said. "We'll continue to provide whatever care they do require."
The asylum seekers are believed to be from Iran, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka and to have joined the boat in Indonesia.
Former Australian diplomat Tony Kevin, a strong critic of Australia's border protection system, told ABC News the rescue effort was "too little too late", and reflected a disdain for asylum seekers.
"There is an entrenched doctrine in the Australian border protection and maritime safety system that distress calls from asylum seekers are not to be believed, that they're having a lend of us," he said.
The home affairs minister, Jason Clare, said authorities had been alerted to the sinking boat on Friday morning by a Melbourne man who had been called by someone on the vessel.
Shortly after a Customs ship found the boat it was swamped by a wave.
The prime minister, Kevin Rudd, said he was deeply saddened and disturbed by the incident.
"The loss of any child's life, or of any person's life, at sea, in these sorts of circumstances, is a genuine human tragedy," he said.
"This tragedy underlines the absolute importance for Australia to continue to adjust its policies to meet changing circumstances in the region and in the world when it comes to border security."
He said it was urgent to elevate co-operative work with Indonesia and other countries in the region to stop people-smuggling.
The government was working with source and transit countries as well as reviewing visa arrangements and the criteria used to decide if people were genuine refugees.
"This is an absolute priority for me, an absolute priority for the government, to continue to adjust our policy to changing circumstances," Mr Rudd said.
The opposition immigration spokesman, Scott Morrison, agreed the latest drowning was a tragedy but said it was "sadly no longer unexpected".
"Latest souls lost follow more than 1300 over last 5 yrs," he said on Twitter.
His coalition colleague Dennis Jensen was more cynical, saying the "people smugglers are rushing as many boats as possible before election".
"They are clearly worried what Libs will do to their business plan!" he tweeted.
Rudd heads to Papua New Guinea on Sunday, where one of Australia's two offshore asylum seeker processing centres is located.
The Greens immigration spokeswoman, Sarah Hanson-Young, urged the prime minister to visit the centre on Manus Island.
"A genuine regional approach does not involve the horrors of Manus Island," she said, adding that a regional solution should start with Australia accepting 3800 refugees from Indonesia.
In a statement Customs said three crew members from the department's vessel ACV Triton were aboard the asylum seeker boat when it foundered but rescuers worked quickly to pull people from the water, assisted by the crew of a nearby merchant vessel.
Customs said an assessment of the rescue operation would be conducted.
"In light of the tragic loss of life during the incident, it is prudent and entirely appropriate that an assessment of the operation is conducted to determine whether correct operational procedures and processes were followed and to ascertain any potential areas for improvement in those procedures."