Tampa Affair - Rescue at Sea

Rescue At Sea

In 2001, increasing numbers of people attempted to travel to Australia by boat in order to seek asylum as refugees. Many of these arrived off Christmas Island, an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean, some 2000 km off the north-west coast of Australia and 500 km south of Jakarta Indonesia. Hundreds of people arrived on tightly packed, unseaworthy vessels, and many were believed to have paid large amounts of money to people smugglers for their passage to Australia.

At dawn on 24 August 2001, a 20 metre wooden fishing boat, the Palapa 1, with 438 (369 men, 26 women and 43 children) mainly Hazara unauthorised arrivals became stranded in international waters about 140 km north of Christmas Island.

On 26 August, Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC) Australia, which had been aware of the vessel's distress, possibly through Coastwatch surveillance, requested all ships in the area to respond. Of the ships that acknowledged the request, the Tampa was closest to the site and began to proceed towards the distressed Palapa 1.

According to international law, survivors of a shipwreck are to be taken to the closest suitable port for medical treatment. Merak, the Indonesian port offered by Indonesia after lobbying by the Australian Government, was 12 hours away; Christmas Island was six or seven hours closer. However Christmas Island did not have the capability of receiving large shipping freighters and therefore Merak was the closest available port able to receive the Tampa.

The Australian rescue authorities had been the first to become aware of the vessel's distress, and for some time attempted to have the Indonesian authorities attend to the rescue. RCC sent a fax to the Indonesian Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS) on the night of 25 August but received no response. On Sunday, 26 August, Australian EST, the Australian embassy sent the naval attaché David Ramsay to visit BASARNAS. By this time, Australian surveillance had observed that the ship's passengers had fashioned signs that read "SOS" and 'HELP" on the ship's deck and, in response, further attempts were made to contact BASARNAS, first by fax and then through the defence attaché in Jakarta. At this time, DIMA called RCC 'asking if vessels that respond to Australian search and rescue broadcast can tow the stranded vessel to Indonesia'.

A call to shipping was broadcast at 12:48 Canberra time: "Subject: Distress Relay. A 35-metre Indonesian type vessel with 80 plus persons on board adrift in the vicinity of 09.32.5 south 104.44 east… vessel has SOS and HELP written on the roof. Vessels within 10 hours report best ETA and intentions to this station."

Captain Arne Rinnan of the MV Tampa responded to the mayday call: "We are on a voyage from Fremantle to Singapore via Sunda Strait… We have changed course and are headed for position of distress… Please advise further course of action. A Rinnan, Master." After an hour of setting course for the vessel, Rinnan received a direction from RCC apparently attempting to disown the rescue operation: "Please note that Indonesian search and rescue authorities have accepted co-ordination of this incident."

The Tampa reached the vessel, guided by Australian Coastwatch de Havilland Dash-8, at about 2 pm. The first child was lifted to safety at 2:30pm and the rescue operation continued all afternoon.

Rinnan re-counted in an interview with Norway Today:

They sent a plane to direct us to the sinking boat. When we arrived it was obvious to us that it was coming apart. Several of the refugees were obviously in a bad state and collapsed when they came on deck to us. 10 to 12 of them were unconscious, several had dysenteria and a pregnant woman suffered abdominal pains.

During the rescue, Rinnan received a call from Jakarta advising him to disembark the passengers at the ferry port of Merak.

About half an hour after the Tampa had set sail toward Indonesia, a delegation of five asylum seekers visited the bridge to demand passage to Australian territory, specifically Christmas Island, or any western country. The group was quite aggressive and agitated and Rinnan agreed to alter course for Christmas Island.

When interviewed by UK newspaper The Observer, Rinnan explained: "A delegation of five men came up to the bridge. They behaved aggressively and told us to go to Australia. They said they had nothing to lose."