Australia Defends Response to Refugee Boat Sinking as Death Toll Rises

Australia on Sunday insisted it provided "all appropriate assistance" to an asylum-seeker boat that sank off Indonesia, as the death toll rose to 28 people, the majority of them Lebanese.

The vessel, carrying an estimated 120 asylum-seekers from Lebanon, mainly from the town of Kabiit in Akkar, Jordan and Yemen, sank in rough seas Friday.

"We found seven more bodies after sweeping the coast this morning, six adults and a boy," Warsono, police chief in the Agrabinta area of Java, where the boat went down, told Agence France Presse on Sunday.

He said the death toll from the accident was now 28, including multiple children -- with many more passengers unaccounted for.

About 20 police, military and search and rescue officials were sweeping the coast around Agrabinta in West Java province in the hunt for survivors or bodies.

However, Warsono said that rescuers could still not deploy boats to search in the rough seas, with waves at heights of four to six meters.

It is the first fatal sinking since conservative Prime Minister Tony Abbott's election win and comes ahead of his arrival in Jakarta on Monday on his first foreign trip as leader where Australia's controversial new people-smuggling policies -- including plans to turn back boats to Indonesia -- are likely to dominate talks.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann defended the government's response to the disaster after survivors claimed they had repeatedly called Australian authorities to request assistance and were promised help that never came.

"Tragically, I mean, the events occurred in an area that was under Indonesian jurisdiction, and of course, Australia did provide all appropriate assistance," Cormann told Meet the Press.

Cormann said reports that Australian officials were first notified that the ship was in distress on Thursday morning were "incorrect,” insisting the first contact was on Friday morning.

"It was a report that related to an event in the Indonesian search-and-rescue zone. And of course, all of the immediate action that was required was taken, in particular, Australian authorities immediately contacted Indonesian authorities," he said.

"There was very close cooperation, as is appropriate in those circumstances, to deal with the unfolding event as quickly as possible."

Survivors told journalists in Java that they had called the Australian embassy for 24 hours after their boat foundered and were told to send through GPS coordinates to assist rescuers.

"We did, and they told us 'OK, we know where you are. We'll come for you in two hours'," Abdullah, from Jordan, told Fairfax newspapers.

"And we wait two hours, we wait 24 hours, and we kept calling them (saying) 'We don't have food, we don't have water for three days, we have children, just rescue us'."

"And nobody come. Sixty person dead now because of Australian government."

Cormann said the full details of the sinking and Australia's response would be provided by Immigration Minister Scott Morrison on Monday during the new government's weekly briefing on its military-led operation against people-smugglers.

The boat capsized and sank after being hit by high waves Friday. Survivors said the boat was headed for Australia's Christmas Island.

Scores of people from war-torn countries use Indonesia as a transit point every year, boarding rickety fishing boats bound for Christmas Island, located 500 kilometers south of Indonesia's capital, Jakarta.

Caretaker PM Tammam Salam said those who led the Lebanese towards “more oppression and despair” are responsible for the death of the asylum-seekers.

He lamented that the nation is submerged in conflicts, chaos and corruption, and slammed people with influence who are further dividing the nation.

Nasser Khodr, who hails from Kabiit, told pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat that his brother Hussein lost his wife and eight children in the disaster.

He quoted Hussein as saying that he would not return to Lebanon. “Had my country wanted me, it wouldn't have left me and my children in the path of immigration and death.”

Nasser blamed the Lebanese government and the General Security Department for inaction after he claimed that had he informed them about the illegal operations to organize asylum-seeking.

“And now we've lost our people,” he told Asharq al-Awsat.

Ali Ahmed al-Masri, the brother of Bassel, 21, who is still unaccounted for, said the victim had paid 10,000 dollars to guarantee his arrival to Australia.

He said a Lebanese man from the area of Dinniyeh had been involved in the operation. Al-Masri expressed readiness to inform police about him for lying on the relatives of the asylum-seekers by claiming that they had arrived safely to Australia.

Kabiit's municipal chief said a delegation from the town will head to Indonesia on Sunday night to identify the bodies.

Haytham Jomaa, who is in charge of immigration affairs at the Lebanese foreign ministry, told Agence France Presse on Saturday that 18 of the Lebanese survived the ordeal.