A Year Since 50 Asylum-seekers died in the Christmas Island Boat Tragedy

A year has passed since a boat carrying asylum seekers crashed into the jagged cliffs off the coast of Christmas Island. The boat, known as SIEV 221, crashed into the sharp rocks early in the morning of December 15. 42 people survived but 50 drowned in the tragedy.

Among the survivors is Sayed Hossien Hossieni. His wife, son and wife’s cousin were among the 50 who drowned.

A year later, Hossien’s application for refugee status was approved and he was granted a permanent protection visa but he remains haunted by the deaths of his wife and son.

“The things I saw during the crash, the memories of my wife, my kid . . . I can’t get those out of my mind,” he said.

“I am living my own nightmare.”

He has not been able to find a job and lives alone in a flat with nothing but some photocopied black and white photos of his wife and child.

In November he tried to end his life and is back in hospital again, still struggling to deal with his loss.

His wife was one of the 20 people whose bodies were never found. This is particularly hard for Hossien. “I still feel my wife’s body — because it wasn’t recovered, I feel she is still there. When I go out to visit people, I can’t stay long — I feel I have to get back home, because Mariem will be waiting for me.”

The boat carrying Hossien and his family was spotted by Christmas Island locals just after dawn on December 15 struggling in the high seas. The Island’s port had been closed for days and the monsoon weather was the worst seen in many years. The boat was headed straight towards the Island. Had it then turned east it would have reached safe waters. Instead, it turned west and was soon dangerously close to the cliffs.

SIEV 221 was an Indonesian fishing boat about 15 metres long.  Before leaving Jakarta, the asylum seekers from Iran and Iraq were told that the boat was comfortable, safe and properly equipped. This was a lie. The only safety equipment on board was 20 to 30 life jackets and the crew were fishermen who had never made the journey before. There were 92 people on board. Another boat had collected the captain as soon as they had entered Australian waters, leaving the asylum seekers and inexperienced crew to make the most dangerous part of the journey on their own.

Christmas Island locals watched horrified as the boat was pushed towards the cliffs by the rough seas. They collected life jackets and waited for the rescue boats to arrive. The hospital was on standby. The boat crashed into the cliffs three times before it broke apart. People and wreckage were thrown into the swirling water.

Hossien remembers the chaos. “Before we hit the cliffs, I emptied a petrol drum and offered it to my wife to hang on to, but she said, ‘You look after the kid’.”

But it was too late. “On hitting the rocks, the planks cracked and slammed into people. About 40 to 70 people just tumbled into each other. As I was trying to reach my wife’s hand, with all the people around we got separated,” he says.

Hossien made it to open sea and to the cliffs where he tried to hang on to a rope thrown by locals. When he realised the waves would crush him against the rocks he let go and swam back from the cliffs. He managed to find a life jacket thrown into the water by the locals and went to try to find his wife and child.

When the rescue boats finally arrived they could not get close to the wreckage in case they crushed people in the rough waves or crashed themselves. Instead they got creative, attaching life jackets and life rings to ropes to get to survivors. 41 people were pulled from the water and one man survived by jumping onto the cliffs. Only 30 bodies were eventually recovered.

The survivors were taken to the Christmas Island Detention Centre where they were kept until their refugee applications were determined. A group of survivors, including Hossien, were briefly released from detention to attend funerals for some of those who had died. Nine bodies were returned to their families in Iran and Iraq for burials there.

Hossien’s friends and relatives back in Iran ask him whether they should use people smugglers to try to get to Australia. “Please do not take such a risk, it is not worth it,” he says.