Australia rescues 120 asylum seekers

Australian authorities have rescued more than 120 asylum seekers and transfered them to Christmas Island, hours after a sinking boat claimed four lives, reports said today.
An Australian Maritime Safety Authority spokeswoman said asylum seekers on board the boat made a distress call about 12.25 p.M. Yesterday, according to local media reports.
Once AMSA located the boat at 1.30pm, it issued a call to all ships in the area asking them to go to the assistance of the fishing boat, the reports said.
The latest operation came after a group of 144 asylum seekers were saved and at least four people died when their boat capzied on Tuesday near Christmas Island.

In a bid to tighten its grip, Australia yesterday ordered the refugee tribunals to take new country assessments into account when deciding on the claims of asylum seekers from countries including Iran, Afghanistan and Vietnam.
According to ABC report, about 90 per cent of asylum seekers who arrived by boat were eventually granted refugee status in Australia to which Foreign Minister Bob Carr said that the figure was too high.

He said most asylum seekers were in fact economic migrants, especially those from Iran.
"There have been some boats where 100 per cent of them have been people who are fleeing countries where they're the majority ethnic and religious group and their motivation is altogether economic," he said.

Australian Government has now ordered the Refugee Review Tribunal to consider new country information prepared by the Department of Foreign Affairs before making any decisions.
The report said the government was coming under pressure to address the issue and was looking at three main changes including tightening of processing rules for economic migrants and greater cooperation in the region, particularly with Papua New Guinea, and there will be a pledge to address the effectiveness of the 60-year-old UN Refugee Convention.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said, "We're looking at this right now globally in terms of the effectiveness of the Refugees' Convention. We're looking at it regionally in terms of our co-operation with regional states in South-East Asia and the south-west Pacific, hence my visit to Indonesia.