Fed: 'Thousands' waiting in Indonesia to cross border: Debus
20 Apr 2009 11:26 PM
MELBOURNE, April 20 AAP - Thousands of asylum seekers are waiting in Indonesia to try to enter Australia illegally, Home Affairs Minister Bob Debus has warned.
Mr Debus said he had no specific figures about how many potential asylum seekers were awaiting illegal passage to Australia in Indonesia.
But he said international intelligence suggested trouble in Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Pakistan had led to a "sharp increase" in the number of people who would seek asylum in Australia or Europe.
"I think it would be more accurate to say (there are) thousands who are in that country and interested (in entering Australia illegally)," he told ABC Television on Monday night.
"That's not to say they will make it. That's not to say they will eventually secure passage one way or another.
"After all, Indonesian police, often working in association with Australian authorities, generally have managed to interrupt a great many attempts at people smuggling."
Mr Debus again refused to give details on the events surrounding the fatal asylum-seeker boat explosion at Ashmore Reef, calling for an end to speculation on the disaster until Northern Territory police had completed a "systematic, forensic reconstruction" of events.
He compared the speculation to that surrounding the 2001 children overboard incident.
"I would not want to behave like Peter Reith and John Howard - Malcolm Turnbull is looking frighteningly like them in the last day or so - I would not like to behave like them and begin to speculate and support all sorts of ... entirely inaccurate information in a not entirely dissimilar incident at sea. I will not do that," Mr Debus said.
"The government has made it clear that it will not go back into that territory again, children overboard, where in fact the truth was simply drowned in speculation."
Angry Northern Territory police have warned political leaders and media commentators to back off, saying interference and speculation could compromise their investigations into the explosion.
"Speculation and claims of a cover up are disappointing," investigation leader Acting Commander Peter Bravos said in Darwin on Monday.
The pointed statement came a day after Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull said the government could face accusations of a cover up unless it gave details of how the boat blew up, causing the deaths of five asylum seekers and injuring dozens more.
