21:37
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(CNN) -- At least two people are dead and more than 100 missing after a wooden boat carrying migrants to the Australian territory of Christmas Island sunk off the coast of Indonesia, a rescue official said early Sunday.
The boat was carrying more than 200 people when it left Indonesia's East Java province, according to Angipp Satoto of the Indonesian search-and-rescue team. Nearly 90 people were rescued from the water, he said.
Sutopo Purnomo Nugroho, a spokesman for Indonesia's National Disaster Management Agency, put the number of missing at 182, with 33 people rescued from the water. Three of those rescued were taken to the hospital, he said.
Indonesian authorities are working with the Australian Maritime Safety Authority in the rescue efforts, Satoto said. The area where the boat sunk is difficult to reach, Nugroho said, and searches continue for more survivors.
Most of those aboard the ship were Indonesians. Others aboard were of Afghan, Iranian, Turkish, French and Saudi Arabian origin, Satoto said.
Christmas Island is an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean, nearer to the Philippines than to Australia. The island is about 1,600 miles northwest of the western Australian city of Perth and 220 miles south of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.
Australia's government has come under fire in the past for what some perceive as a soft border protection policy that encourages asylum seekers to flee to Australia.
In December 2010, a boat carrying as many as 90 asylum seekers crashed into the cliffs along Christmas Island, killing at least 48 people.
The boat was carrying more than 200 people when it left Indonesia's East Java province, according to Angipp Satoto of the Indonesian search-and-rescue team. Nearly 90 people were rescued from the water, he said.
Sutopo Purnomo Nugroho, a spokesman for Indonesia's National Disaster Management Agency, put the number of missing at 182, with 33 people rescued from the water. Three of those rescued were taken to the hospital, he said.
Indonesian authorities are working with the Australian Maritime Safety Authority in the rescue efforts, Satoto said. The area where the boat sunk is difficult to reach, Nugroho said, and searches continue for more survivors.
Most of those aboard the ship were Indonesians. Others aboard were of Afghan, Iranian, Turkish, French and Saudi Arabian origin, Satoto said.
Christmas Island is an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean, nearer to the Philippines than to Australia. The island is about 1,600 miles northwest of the western Australian city of Perth and 220 miles south of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.
Australia's government has come under fire in the past for what some perceive as a soft border protection policy that encourages asylum seekers to flee to Australia.
In December 2010, a boat carrying as many as 90 asylum seekers crashed into the cliffs along Christmas Island, killing at least 48 people.
Posted in: 02. MIGRANT
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