About 40 as asylum seekers feared lost after departing Indonesia's West Papua province in a boat have landed on Australia's northern coast, a government official said yesterday.
The 25m boat left the Indonesian port of Merauke early on Friday and headed across the Torres Strait for Australia's northern Cape York Peninsula, according to Louise Byrne of the Australian West Papua Association.
The Australian Customs Service sent a Coastwatch aircraft to search for the boat, which was spotted ashore in the remote Cape York area yesterday afternoon, customs spokesman Mike Carter said.
"They'd reached land," Carter said. "An Australian Customs vessel is on its way to meet the vessel."
Crater would not reveal where on the sparsely populated cape region the boat had landed or say when the customs vessel was expected to reach the scene.
About 40 adults, mostly student activists, were on board along with four children, Byrne told ABC radio.
"We've been spending a rather frantic weekend looking for them because it's not far across the Torres Strait so it should have taken them a maximum of 15 [to] 16 hours," she said.
Indonesia took over West Papua from Dutch colonial rule in 1963. Its sovereignty over the area was formalized in 1969 through a stage-managed vote by about 1,000 community leaders. Critics dismissed the poll as a sham.
A small, poorly armed separatist movement has battled Jakarta's rule ever since.
About 100,000 West Papuans, one-sixth of the population, have died in military operations on the half-island province about 3,700km east of Jakarta.
Byrne said the group was forced to leave because of increasing political tensions in West Papua.
"We hope these asylum seekers when they are found are given asylum," she said.
"They have too much knowledge of what's going on in West Papua inside government departments," she added.
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
ALLIES: Calling Putin his ‘old friend,’ Xi said Beijing stood alongside Russia ‘in the face of the international counter-current of unilateralism and hegemonic bullying’ Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday was in Moscow for a state visit ahead of the Kremlin’s grand Victory Day celebrations, as Ukraine accused Russia’s army of launching air strikes just hours into a supposed truce. More than 20 foreign leaders were in Russia to attend a vast military parade today marking 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, taking place three years into Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and has marshaled the memory of Soviet victory against Nazi Germany to justify his campaign and rally society behind the offensive,
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
CONFLICTING REPORTS: Beijing said it was ‘not familiar with the matter’ when asked if Chinese jets were used in the conflict, after Pakistan’s foreign minister said they were The Pakistan Army yesterday said it shot down 25 Indian drones, a day after the worst violence between the nuclear-armed rivals in two decades. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed to retaliate after India launched deadly missile strikes on Wednesday morning, escalating days of gunfire along their border. At least 45 deaths were reported from both sides following Wednesday’s violence, including children. Pakistan’s military said in a statement yesterday that it had “so far shot down 25 Israeli-made Harop drones” at multiple location across the country. “Last night, India showed another act of aggression by sending drones to multiple locations,” Pakistan military spokesman Ahmed
RSS