Speaking to reporters on the sinking of an asylum seekers' boat en route to Australia yesterday, the Australian Home Affairs Minister, Jason Clare, offered his take on the events:
"More than 300 people have died in the last three months and it appears more people have died in the last 24 hours."
"My message to them, is don’t get on the boat."
Focussing on people smugglers and "their business model", Clare said:
"They're telling people they're selling them a ticket to Australia,”
"What they're really doing is selling them a ticket to Nauru or a ticket to the bottom of the sea."
"I think the legislation [to set up offshore processing] only encourages people smugglers to try and get people onto boats as quickly as they can because they know setting up offshore processing in Nauru, in Manus Island...will shut down their business model."
