National Museum of Australia - ‘Tampa affair’
▻http://www.nma.gov.au/online_features/defining_moments/featured/tampa_affair
▻http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-vn3581017-v
2001: Australian troops take control of Tampa carrying rescued asylum-seekers
On this day in 2001, Australian troops boarded the Norwegian freighter MV Tampa off Christmas Island. The commander of the vessel, Captain Arne Rinnan, had rescued hundreds of asylum-seekers from a stranded Indonesian fishing boat in the Indian Ocean and was attempting to bring them to Australia. The ‘Tampa Crisis’ became the catalyst for Australia’s new ‘border protection’ policy.
No one knows how many boat people have died, but thousands have been rescued at sea. In the reality of dangerous journeys undertaken to gain access to reluctant coastal states, the time-honoured maritime traditions of rescue at sea collide with the growing determination of states to prevent illegal entry to their territory.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 2006
