SIEV

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Border between Australia and Indonesia until 2002 after the Timor Gap Treaty .
Steles in the SIEV-X cemetery that reproduce the outline of the sunken SIEV X.

SIEV is an acronym for Suspected Irregular Entry Vessel (roughly translated as suspected irregular entry ). This abbreviation is used by the Royal Australian Navy and Australian Border Force for boats with asylum seekers attempting to reach Australia by sea from Indonesia and entering Australia's migration zone . In principle, these boats are given sequential numbers in addition to the acronym. Only in 2001 there was an exception, when a fishing boat with SIEV X was called. This sank in the Indonesian sea area, which the responsible Australian authorities observe because of asylum seekers, but for which they declare that they are not responsible. The fishing boats on which the refugees set sail are mostly made of wood, are old and can hardly be described as seaworthy. They are mostly overcrowded. You create a rule in Indonesia, and have as boat people on the persons referred mainly from Iraq , Afghanistan and Sri Lanka on board, but also a few from other countries.

Political background

The Australian policy concept of the Pacific Solution goes back to the liberal-conservative administration of John Howard , who introduced it in 2001. The Howard government passed the Migration Amendment (Excision from Migration Zone) Act 2001 in the Australian Parliament . The Australian migration zone is patrolled by warships and aircraft. The 2001 law meant that boat people were not legally entitled to asylum on any of the Australian islands, including Christmas Island , Ashmore Islands, etc., or on technical facilities such as Australian oil platforms. According to this policy, ships with boat people are arrested for irregular entry at sea and forced either to return to Indonesia or the asylum seekers were brought to the Manus Regional Processing Center on the island of Manus until the end of 2017 and then to the Nauru Regional Processing Center on the island state of Nauru . The Australian Royal Navy declared its role in the migration and asylum policy of Australia to Operation Relex , which it renamed Operation Resolute in July 2005 .

The Pacific Solution policy was first introduced after the Tampa Affair . That was an incident in August 2001 that sparked a diplomatic crisis between Australia and Norway . In the first year of application of the Pacific Solution from August to the end of December 2001, 14 so-called SIEV incidents occurred, four of these boats were forced to return to Indonesia and three boats sank. The SIEV X ended particularly tragically with 353 drowned people. As early as October 2001, an Indonesian wooden fishing boat, the SIEV 4 , broke and sank when it was towed by the Australian warship HMAS Adelaide . Nobody was harmed. However, Prime Minister John Howard accused the boat people of SIEV 4 of throwing children overboard, which later turned out to be an allegation against better knowledge. This process became known as the Children Overboard Affair . This event and the sinking of SIEV X occurred in the run-up to the general election in Australia on November 10, 2001 and, according to Ian McAllister (Australian National University) and Katherine Betts (Swinburne University), probably played a major role in Howard's election victory. After 2001, more SIEVs came to Australia, but they were mostly smaller boats.

Notable SIEV incidents

From September 7, 2001 to July 15, 2012 there were 374 SIEV incidents. The SIEV incidents that have become known either with more than 200 asylum seekers on boats or through special events are listed below. Several of these incidents have also been the subject of parliamentary investigations.

  • The SIEV 1 reached the Ashmore Islands on September 7, 2001 with 228 boat people.
  • The SIEV 2 arrived at the Ashmore Islands on September 10, 2001 with 260 boat people.
  • The SIEV 4 was the Children Overboard Affair known. The boat sank and the 223 boat people reached Christmas Island on the HMAS Arunta on October 6, 2001.
  • The SIEV 5 reached the Ashmore Islands with 242 boat people on October 12, 2001 and was forced to return.
  • The SIEV 6 arrived on Christmas Island on October 18, 2001 with 227 boat people .
  • The SIEV X sank on October 19, 2001 with more than 400 boat people in a sea area in Indonesia. Only 45 people survived this tragedy.
  • The SIEV 7 reached the Ashmore Islands on October 22, 2001 with 215 boat people and was forced to return.
  • The SIEV 36 was stopped by HMAS Albany and caught fire on April 16, 2009 near the Ashmore Islands. An explosion occurred and it sank. There were 47 boat people and two Indonesian crew members on the boat. Three passengers and two crew members died, and two other people have been missing since then. Five soldiers were injured in the explosion.
  • The SIEV 221 crashed on December 15, 2010 on the cliffs in front of Christmas Island with 90 to 100 people on board, 44 lost their lives.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Chronology , on SIEVX. Retrieved December 7, 2019.
  2. ↑ Excisions from the Migration Zone — Policy and Practice (PDF), March 1, 2004, to the Australian Parliament. Retrieved December 8, 2019
  3. ↑ Operation Resulute on Airforce Australia. Retrieved December 7, 2019
  4. ↑ "The significance of boat arrivals to the political scene in Australia was perhaps never more evident than in 2001 when, according to some commentators, the Howard Government's tough stance on asylum-seekers and boat arrivals swept it to victory in the November federal election. " See: Boat arrivals in Australia since 1976 , January 11, 2011, on Parliament of Australia. Retrieved December 8, 2019
  5. ↑ a b c Suspected Irregular Entry Vessel (SIEV) , on SiEVX. Retrieved December 7, 2019.
  6. ↑ Australian Parliament (ed.): Senate Select Committee on a Certain Maritime Incident (PDF), Report from 2002, on Parliament of Australia. Retrieved December 6, 2019.
  7. ^ Siev 221. Internal review (PDF), from 2010, on the Australian Government. Retrieved December 7, 2019.