Up to 50 asylum-seekers are feared drowned after their boat was smashed on rocks yesterday, with 28 bodies recovered so far.
 
Forty-four people, including 11 children, survived the ordeal, and rescuers last night continued to scour the ocean for others.
 
Harrowing stories have emerged from the tragedy, with one Christmas Islander telling how he had to be talked out of jumping into the water as he watched a young girl drown.

 
But even as the full horror becomes clear, attention is already turning to Government policy, with Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul leading the attack.
 
Laying blame

"Government anti-refugee policy is responsible for the tragedy on Christmas Island.

"Our heart goes out to the people and their families of the asylum seekers who have lost their lives, so close to the possibility of protection. But the blame lies with the Australian Government," he said.

"If the Australian Government was willing to properly process asylum seekers in Indonesia and resettle successful refugees in Australia, then far fewer people would get on boats to travel to Australia."

Mr Rintoul said the Government should also drop its people-smuggling laws "so that boats travelling to Australia would be able and willing to notify Australian authorities of their travels and arrange to rendezvous safely".
 
Resignation call

Well-known Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt was even more strident this morning, saying Julia Gillard should resign.
 
"The Gillard Government has blood on its hands. Prime Minister Julia Gillard should resign," he writes.

"These tragic drownings at Christmas Island are a direct result of her reckless boat people policies.

"Again and again she was warned those policies - fatally relaxed in 2008 - would result in exactly this loss of life.

"... Gillard's response? When I said 14 months ago at least 25 people had already died and 'more will die, too' unless the laws were toughened, she pretended ignorance to the Opposition: 'There is no evidence to support this figure.'"

Policy plea

Afghan Australian Association of Victoria president Abdul Khaliq Fazal, a former government minister and presidential adviser, said he had pleaded to the Department of Immigration for stronger policies.

"You could put a stop to this. We need to demand the Department of Immigration come up with a proper policy to put a stop to asylum seeker boats and see to it that a special humanitarian program be widened, so people seeking asylum can do so legally and safely," he said.

Similar boat tragedies had claimed more lives than was generally known, he added.

"Ask the Department of Immigration, in the last five years, how many boats had departed Indonesia compared to how many have arrived," Mr Fazal said.

"The correct answer would amaze you.

"Every human being, every loving person who wants to protect human rights, should be worried and sad about the loss of innocent people.

"They committed no crime. They were coming for a better life to a place they thought would be paradise."

WikiLeaks

Today Fairfax reported that cables released by WikiLeaks had accused Labor and the coalition of playing partisan politics with the issue of asylum seekers.

The cables show that a close adviser to Mr Rudd failed to persuade him to use the government's powers "to calmly and rationally put the issue in perspective" by acknowledging that only a small number of asylum seekers were arriving by boat compared with tens of thousands overstaying their visas each year.

A cable obtained by WikiLeaks and provided to Fairfax says an unnamed "key Liberal Party strategist" told US diplomats in November last year that the issue of asylum seekers was "fantastic" for the coalition and "the more boats that come the better".

Navy questions

Meanwhile, Pamela Curr from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre questioned why the Navy allowed the wooden vessel to get so close to the island in treacherous conditions.

"We know that we have very efficient surveillance out there," she said on ABC Radio.

"If indeed they (authorities) did know the boat was coming, which is highly likely, why didn't someone stop it?

"We have to have an inquiry because this can't happen again."

UN reacts

This morning the UNHCR acknowledged that the capacity of countries in Asia, around the Mediterranean, the Caribbean or the Gulf of Aden to host asylum seekers was being sorely tested.

But it insisted that most of them were found to be refugees escaping oppression or violence.

"We believe that far too many people are tragically losing their lives as they take desperate measures to escape conflict, persecution and poverty," Mr Fleming said.

Paul Power, from the Refugee Council, said people would continue to put their lives at risk until international policy was changed.

"Much more must be done to build regional and international co-operation to protect refugees in Asia. This tragedy emphasises the absolute urgency of this task," he said.

Iranian Society president Farshad Khajhenouri said Melbourne's Persian community felt yesterday's tragedy keenly.

"Our community can associate with these people because we understand the misery they have been attempting to escape. They were looking for a better life."

Melbourne Kurdish Foundation spokesman Twana Nwri said those on the boat would have known the risks.

"But they are willing to take the risk because of the situation they have come from."

The Immigration Department has set up a hotline for people who may have known someone on board the boat or who may have information about the accident. The number is 1300 724 010.

With The Australian, The Herald Sun and wires