54 asylum seekers rescued from stranded boat off northern Australia

54 asylum seekers rescued from boat off Australia

ADELAIDE, Australia — Australian border protection officials rescued 54 asylum seekers on Sunday from a boat stranded in northern waters, the home affairs minister said.

It was the sixth boatload of asylum seekers that entered Australian waters in the last two weeks, an influx that has stoked political debate over the country’s relaxed immigration policies.

Home Affairs Minister Brendan O’Connor said the passengers, some dehydrated and seasick, were rescued by a border protection boat. The vessel was spotted by aircraft the previous day about 630 miles (1,015 kilometers) north of the Cocos-Keeling Islands in the Indian Ocean.

Water and food were dropped to the boat by an air force plane, and a merchant vessel, as part of its safety-of-life-at-sea obligations, stayed overnight with the distressed boat, O’Connor said in a statement. He did not say what was wrong with the vessel.

The passengers, whose nationalities were not specified, indicated they wished to come to Australia, he said.

They were being taken to an Australian immigration detention center on Christmas Island, a remote Australian territory in the Indian Ocean, for health and security checks.

O’Connor said the rescue highlights the risks of people smuggling, which he called a “deplorable act.”

Last year, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd relaxed a mandatory detention policy for asylum seekers and allowed full residency visas for those accepted as refugees, rather than the temporary visas granted by the previous government.

The opposition says people smugglers have increasingly targeted Australia since Rudd relaxed the policies.

The government contends that the rise in illegal boat arrivals — 32 since Rudd took office in late 2007 — is due to increasing violence in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran and Sri Lanka.