A vessel carrying over 150 asylum seekers sank on route to Australia yesterday, approximately 45 nautical miles from Indonesia.
At 4.20am and 5am yesterday a distress call was put out by the vessel to Australian officials, stating that there were 155 people on board including women and children.
Search and rescue efforts now retrieved 55 survivors. The effort is being led by BASARNAS, the Indonesian search and rescue agency, with the assistance of Australian counterparts at the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA).
Following the distress call on Wednesday, Indonesian teams searched the water, but could not find the vessel. It was not until the following morning, when a merchant vessel spotted six people in the water, that further search and rescue operations were instigated.
Captain Manuel Nistorescu, from one of the merchant vessels assisting in the search and rescue effort, told Sydney Morning Herald, that survivors including a group of Afghan men who had been in the water for 24 hours.
