At least seven asylum seekers drowned and scores more were missing when a wooden boat sunk off Indonesia’s West Java province on Tuesday, an official said. The boat, carrying migrants from Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan, capsized on the way to Kupang in eastern Indonesia, a key transit point for refugees trying to reach Australia, local navy official Dayat Sudrajat said. “Forty people were rescued but seven people, four adults and three children, drowned.
We are still searching for those missing,” he said, adding the toll was likely to rise as people were trapped in the boat. “I believe they were headed for Australia.” The dead and 15 injured have been taken to hospital, according to Samsudin — who like many Indonesians goes by one name — from the local Pangandaran police, while police were questioning some others.
