SYDNEY (AP) - Asylum seekers deliberately doused their boat in gasoline before an explosion that killed three people Thursday as the vessel was being escorted to a detention center by Australia’s navy, a state official said.
The claim by Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett could not be confirmed, and the government immediately responded that it was too early to speculate on the cause of the explosion, which sunk the small boat.
The survivors were taken onto two navy vessels.
Two people were missing and an unknown number of people had burn injuries following the morning explosion, the commander of Australia’s Border Protection Command, Rear Adm. Allan du Toit, told reporters. The most seriously injured were likely to be taken ashore by helicopter.
He repeatedly declined to comment on the claim that the boat’s occupants had caused the explosion. Home Affairs Minister Bob Debus, at the same news conference, also would not confirm Barnett’s claim.
“It is clearly a possibility that that is what occurred but we are not in the position to finally confirm whether that is so or not,” Debus said.
“There is much speculation and if the premier of Western Australia chooses to speculate without having the kind of evidence that we think to be necessary to draw a final conclusion, that is up to him.”
Du Toit said there were 49 suspected asylum seekers and crew on board the boat as well as a few Australian military personnel at the time of the explosion. Two Australians received minor injuries.
The small boat was intercepted by the navy Wednesday in the Indian Ocean and was under escort to the remote Australian territory of Christmas Island, where the government processes refugee applicants, when the blast took place early Thursday. The boats were near Ashmore Reef, in the Timor Sea about 520 miles (840 kilometers) from the Northern Territory capital, Darwin.
Western Australia police speculated that the explosion may have originated in the engine compartment.
Barnett, whose state borders the waters where the incident took place, said the injured were being transported to Darwin or to Perth, capital of Western Australia.
It was not clear why the people on the boat would set it alight. They may have feared they were being escorted away from Australia.
“Clearly we’re talking about desperate people,” Barnett said.
The increase in boat numbers has sparked debate in Australia over whether an easing of strict immigration regulations last year has emboldened people smugglers and would-be refugees.
The boat was the third carrying suspected asylum seekers to illegally enter Australian waters in the past two weeks and the sixth this year.
Australia has long been a destination for people from poor, often war-ravaged countries hoping to start a new life. Most of the recent asylum seekers have come from Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq. They typically fly to Indonesia before continuing to Australia aboard cramped, barely seaworthy boats.
The number of boats had dwindled after the previous government imposed unlimited detention for illegal immigrants and made it difficult to get refugee visas. But since the present government relaxed some of those policies last July, 13 boats carrying more than 400 people have entered Australian waters.
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