It was October 7, two days after John Howard called the 2001 federal election, when Philip Ruddock announced as fact that children had been thrown overboard in a "planned and premeditated" tactic to thwart Australia's uncompromising border protection policy.
The following day, the Prime Minister expressed his outrage at the asylum seekers' behaviour, declaring he did not want people "like that" in Australia. "There's something, to me, incompatible between somebody who claims to be a refugee and somebody who would throw their own child into the sea," Howard explained. "It offends the natural instinct of protection and delivering security and safety to your children."
It wasn't until after the election was won (in part on the slogan "We decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come") that the truth emerged: no child on SIEV-4 was thrown overboard.
Yes, he explains, in two separate episodes a child was held aloft on the deck of the unseaworthy boat, but "we were trying to draw their attention, to say, 'Look, just take the babies with you and, if we die, it's OK'."
On the first occasion, he says the asylum seekers could not see the sailors on the HMAS Adelaide, but they assumed those on the ship could see them through binoculars
AdvertisementThe truth overboard (theage.com.au)The second time was to make the same plea after Australian sailors had delivered food and water to the boat and lifejackets to those who did not have them, just as the overcrowded boat began to sink.
Alsaai describes how his wife and daughters were among the last to enter the water and how he cradled the younger one, Banin, on his chest for about 40 minutes before they were rescued.
