Asylum-Seeker Boat Sinking Off Indonesia

An asylum-seeker boat carrying an estimated 150 people was sinking in Indonesia's Sunda Strait, reports said on Wednesday, with Indonesian rescue services responding.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation said a distress call indicated the boat was in trouble between Java and Sumatra, some 220 nautical miles from the Australian Indian Ocean territory of Christmas Island.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) confirmed a rescue was under way, led by Indonesia's search-and-rescue organization.

"Basarnas are coordinating the search-and-rescue response to this incident," a spokeswoman said via email.

"Australia has issued a broadcast to shipping and Basarnas has indicated no further assistance is required.

"All questions relating to the incident will need to be addressed by Basarnas as the coordinating agency."

ABC said Indonesian authorities sent two rescue helicopters and a ship to the area, but have so far found no sign of the boat.

Canberra is facing a steady influx of asylum-seekers arriving in Australia by boat, many of whom use Indonesia as a transit hub, boarding leaky wooden vessels after fleeing their home countries.

Australian authorities this month said 300 boatpeople had died en route to the country this year, with boats being intercepted by the Australian navy almost on a daily basis.

Two weeks ago, Canberra announced its intention to transfer asylum-seekers to Nauru and Papua New Guinea in the Pacific as part of a tough new policy to deter them from making the dangerous sea voyage.

But they keep coming, with more than 1,000 boatpeople arriving since the policy was adopted.

The new policy represents a return to the harsh era of the previous conservative government that sent asylum-seekers to Nauru and PNG but which the center-left Labor rolled back soon after taking office in late 2007.