REPORTER: David O’Shea
On the south coast of Java, the latest boat tragedy unfolds. The barely living are brought to shore, along with the dead. Loaded with over 200 Sri Lankans and Iranians, the boat went down just a few days after Kevin Rudd's tough new PNG Solution was unveiled. In the closest hospital, survivors Masoud and Ebrahim are attending to this small girl.
EBRAHIM KAZIMZADE (Translation): This baby and her parents were in the water for 22 hours before they were rescued. There were some who died in the first two hours because they had no lifejackets. They couldn’t swim. It was only God who saved us.
At last count, 20 asylum seekers perished. In another ward, Fatima, also from Iran, recalls the horrors of the treacherous south coast.
FATIMA DEHGAN (Translation): It was awful, it was awful... We had no lifejackets. They didn’t give us lifejackets. It was very dangerous. When the boat sank... it was horrible, the memory will never leave me.
As the young victim is taken to a better equipped hospital, I'm keen to find out what the two men know of the new policy. I have brought copies of the latest Australian announcements.
JANAMI MASOUD (Translation): This is a message from the Australian Government. For those who are involved in people smuggling, if you come here by boat, without a visa... you cannot settle in Australia.
It sounds clear, but they don't believe it.
JANAMI MASOUD (Translation): This is not for you and me. This is not for us. This message is not for us.
They think the Iranian government is responsible for the ads.
JANAMI MASOUD (Translation): This is not from Australia. It’s from Iran itself. This is Iran say. Iran say.
They've survived a terrible ordeal and not seen any news, so perhaps their confusion is understandable. But there's no confusion with these asylum seekers. They're Hazaras, a persecuted minority in Afghanistan and Pakistan. They live in the mountains outside Jakarta, in an area full of people trying to get to Australia. Nine men sleep in this tiny 2-room home.
MAN (Translation): To those who have a stake in people smuggling, those who come here by boat without a visa will not be settled in Australia.
Kevin Rudd's message has spread like wildfire amongst the Hazaras. But for some, the tough measures are no deterrent.
MAN (Translation): It wouldn’t matter to us at all. PNG is good for us. We need a safe country and Australia WONT take us. But anywhere we’re safe is good for us.
Arif Hussaini, who's tried and failed six times to get to Australia by boat, says he will try again.
REPORTER: So, you're happy to go to Papua New Guinea?
ARIF HUSSAINI: Yeah, I'm happy, because in Papua New Guinea there is a peace. In our country there is no peace, that's why.
And there's a view that PNG is one step closer to Australia.
MAN (Translation): We have to move from here towards Australia. We have no security in Pakistan or Afghanistan. Where can we go? To which country?
Even though they're prepared to go to PNG, they're concerned about what they've read.
YOUNG MAN (Translation): Looking at it on the internet, It’s worse than Afghanistan. You won’t be killed, it’s secure. If it’s secure, why not? If there’s work and living facilities are available, why not?
It's still unclear whether Australia will take more refugees from those waiting in Indonesia, which would reduce the incentive to get on a boat. This uncertainty only adds to their confusion.
HAYATULLAH AKBARI (Translation): People who wait for their application to be processed can go to Australia.
ARIF HUSSAINI (Translation): No, that’s not right. He indicated that he didn’t know about the applications here. What he’s talking about is people travelling by boat. He’s not talking about the process here.
When they get the smuggler's call, they will probably come here - the shop owner does a brisk trade in life jackets.
SHOPKEEPER (Translation): People from Jakarta say “It’s weird to buy these in the mountains.”
REPORTER (Translation): Do you sell many?
SHOPKEEPER (Translation): Each week I sell 20 or 30. It depends. Five or six a day, sometimes they ask if there are small ones for kids. I say “No. These are only for adults.” Sometimes, they even buy car inner tubes that had holes in them, which I’ve patched.
Right next door to the shop, an alleyway leads to another group of Hazaras.
REPORTER (Translation): Where are the Afghans?
MAN (Translation): Here.
REPORTER (Translation): Oh, OK, OK. Thank you.
It's yet another group of young men who are not permitted to work or study. They spend their days watching TV. Kamal doesn't know what to make of Rudd's Pacific Solution.
KAMAL: I'm conscious about the policy of Australia, why Australia likes to send the people to Papua New Guinea. Papua New Guinea is not a qualified country for resettlement there, immigration.
REPORTER: Why not?
KAMAL: Everybody say he is a poor country, he's not civilised and the people of Papua New Guinea are not happy with the immigration people. I think the Australian Government would not continue this plan for a long time.
REPORTER: So you think it's just talk at the moment and in the future the policy will change again?
Majid Mozaffari has just had his interview with the Australian Embassy in Jakarta and he's waiting to hear if he will be accepted. He says if not he will take a boat.
MAJID MOZAFFARI (Translation): If I don’t get a response, I’ll have no choice but to go. Wherever they take me, PNG or Nauru. Wherever. I have no problem with that. As long as I’m safe
Our conversation is interrupted by news from home. More Hazaras blown up in Pakistan.
MAN: A Quetta blast.
REPORTER: Oh, really? Another one?
MAN: Yeah, today Hazaras are killed by terrorist group LeJ, Lashkar-e-Jangvi.
It's a reminder why they're stuck here, sometimes for years. They want Australia to open a processing centre to speed things up. But Indonesia is yet to agree.
MOHAMMAD ALI (Translation): The ones who are real asylum seekers and in danger should be processed quicker and get asylum in Australia or some other country. If they open an office here, no one will go by boat. No one.
If asylum seekers are having trouble making sense of it all, so too is Indonesia's political elite.
TANTOWI YAHYA: I think choosing Papua New Guinea as a place of processing is a good option still.
Tantowi Yahya sits on the influential Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Commission. While he supports Rudd's tough policy, he's missed the key point.
TANTOWI YAHYA: There will be processed, when they are clear, then they can, uh, they can sail to Australia. That's what I understand.
REPORTER: That's not what the Australians are saying.
TANTOWI YAHYA: That's what I understand.
REPORTER: OK.
TANTOWI YAHYA: So far. OK. The boats will be sent to Papua New Guinea for processing, so those who are qualified and eligible, then they will be allowed to sail to Australia. That's what I understand.
REPORTER: What is your understanding of Australia's new policy?
The Vice-President's senior adviser, Dr Dewi Fortuna Anwar, says she's not surprised he's confused.
DR DEWI FORTUNA ANWAR: So, one should not fault the honourable member of parliament if he is not fully informed about it. Maybe it's a job of the Australian side. Maybe the Australian Ambassador here should make it his job to explain to the necessity stakeholders in Indonesia what the real implication of that agreement between Australia and PNG is.
REPORTER: Of course, the other implication may well be that they don't stop coming, but they come in the same numbers, but they stay here for much longer. What will be the ramifications for Indonesia if that's the case?
DR DEWI FORTUNA ANWAR: Well, I think that's what put a lot of stress on Indonesia, given the fact that Indonesia is also facing a lot of problems.
Back in the mountains, the Hazaras are off to the market to buy tonight's dinner. The stall they frequent is run by a Persian-speaking Indonesian woman, making a small fortune from all the new arrivals.
DESI (Translation): For sure!
REPORTER (Translation): You can buy a good mobile...
DESI (Translation): A house, a car. For sure. If there were no Iranians, no Somalis, no Afghans, then my business might be down. I have lots of customers in Australia. They’ve gone from here to Australia.
REPORTER (Translation): Since a lot of them came here, have you changed what you sell?
DESI (Translation): Yes, everything.
REPORTER (Translation): Do you like their food?
DESI (Translation): It makes me sick!
REPORTER (Translation): You just like selling it
DESI (Translation): I just like the money.
But money is in short supply in this house, where another six Hazara men wait for news about their applications for asylum. They were considering taking a boat, but not now.
REPORTER: Has this new policy changed your way of thinking?
MAN (Translation): Of course, by waiting here we’re respecting the law. If the law hadn’t been changed, we wouldn’t wait.
They hope Australia will reward them for doing the right thing, and let them in. But, once again, I hear frustration.
SAFAR MOHAMMAD (Translation): Our applications are not getting processed, we are worried about our families sine we are the ones responsible for them and we have no idea what to do.
By coincidence, Dateline was in this same house last year, with another group of Hazaras. They were watching this remarkable video of their near-death experience on a sinking boat.
BARAT ALI BATOOR: The captain told us already that the boat is leaked and we might not go further, the water is very bad.
The filming was done by Barat Ali Batoor, a photojournalist. After surviving the ill-fated journey, he was granted refugee status and now lives in Melbourne.
CROWD: Free, free, the refugees!
He's working on a book and documentary about his journey.
ADAM BANT: They need our support, not our hostility!
Batoor knows only too well the situation for his fellow Hazaras and the impact of Australia's hardline policy.
BARAT ALI BATOOR: Because they have lost their loved ones and they had been carrying dead bodies every day on a daily basis. So, like, now they are just completely traumatised and they're overloaded, like, and they're much more traumatised by these new laws. So, they don't know what they're doing and they don't know, like, what to do, so there's no more options for them.
Back in Indonesia, the trauma is evident.
SAFAR MOHAMMAD (Translation): In my case, for example, We’re a family of six. I have none of them with me and I’m alone. I have nothing. I have no idea what their plight is at the moment. My emotions are preventing me from speaking.
His suffering is hard to watch, but then I meet an even more desperate group, who may well form the next wave of boat people.
ABDUL SAMAD: We don't have the money, we don't have the passports, we don't have the nationality.
They're Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar. Thousands are fleeing after deadly attacks from Buddhist extremists.
MOHAMMAD ALI: We have no…. in other words, living hand-to-mouth now.
Desperate and now broke after paying $3,000 each to an Indonesian smuggler who then disappeared, they can't afford food and are about to be thrown out of this house onto the street.
REPORTER: What will you do?
MOHAMMAD ALI: What can we do? This is the situation.
Now with an election called...
KEVIN RUDD, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: The time has come for the Australian people to decide on our nation's future.
Any of these would-be boat people may find themselves being towed back to Indonesia, if the Coalition wins. It's a policy viewed with concern in Jakarta.
DR DEWI FORTUNA ANWAR: My first reaction will be that it would look - it would make Australia look very bad in the eyes of the international community. It's no solution at all. I don't think it's a solution, because from the Indonesian side, they will say, "We will shoo them off again.
REPORTER: So it's a game of ping-pong.
DR DEWI FORTUNA ANWAR: Until the boat goes in a circle and they run out of fuel, water and food. If we cause people to be killed at sea, both Canberra and Jakarta, I think, will be equally to blame.
Now, even as the Government and Opposition try to prove who's toughest on boat people, there's no guarantee the boats will stop leaving these fateful shores.
ANJALI RAO: The Bahasa-speaking David O'Shea in Indonesia. Stand by for more political mud-slinging in this country on that issue as the election campaign unfolds. By the way, there is plenty of comment online already about David's story. Go to our website or use the Twitter hashtag #DatelineSBS to have your say.
Reporter/Camera
DAVID O’SHEA
Producer
GEOFF PARISH
Additional Camera
LEXY RAMBADETA(JR)
Researcher
MELANIE MORRISON
Editors
MICAH MCGOWN
WAYNE LOVE
ENG Camera
TOM GELAI
Translations/Subtitling
NASIBA AKRAM
ROBYN FALLICK
Original Music Composed by
VICKI HANSEN