Australia's deadliest asylum seeker boat disaster remembered 25 years on

Mourners have gathered at a national memorial in Canberra to mark the 25th anniversary of Australia's deadliest asylum seeker boat disaster, the sinking of SIEV X.

On October 19, 2001, 353 people died when the fishing boat headed to Christmas Island sank in international waters off the coast of the Indonesian island of Java.

Of the dead, 146 were children.

The 20-metre-long fishing boat, which was carrying more than 400 people, capsized and sank when its engine failed in heavy seas.

More than 20 hours after the vessel went down, 45 survivors were rescued by Indonesian fishing boats.

The name SIEV X is a naval acronym, standing for Suspected Illegal Entry Vessel X.

While the vessel sank 70 kilometres south of Java, not in Australia's waters, the disaster occurred in a border protection surveillance area temporarily designated by Australia.

Questions still remain about the SIEV X tragedy 25 years after it occurred, with many of the victims never publicly identified and no full judicial inquiry ever taking place.

The victims are remembered at the SIEV X Memorial in Canberra's Weston Park, where each wooden pole — decorated by school, church and community groups — marks one person who died.

Advocacy group Refugee Action Campaign (RAC) Canberra organised the 25-year memorial service to honour the lives lost in the "preventable tragedy".

The RAC said the service also allowed attendees "to stand in solidarity with [the victims'] loved ones, and to show support and compassion for refugees and people seeking asylum".

"In today's environment in which migrants and refugees are being blamed by politicians with nothing else to offer for the failures of governments to prioritise the needs of ordinary people, the SIEV X Memorial remains as relevant as ever," Refugee Action Campaign Canberra said.

A political message 25 years on

The SIEV X tragedy occurred just weeks after the Howard government refused the entry of Norwegian freighter MV Tampa, which was carrying more than 400 rescued asylum seekers.

The Tampa affair sparked intense debate leading up to the 2001 federal election campaign, as the government hardened its stance on asylum seekers.

Memorial co-founder Steve Biddulph said on the fifth anniversary of the disaster, the Howard government opposed the memorial on Commonwealth land, and so those who gathered for the service held the memorial's poles upright.

He said a year later, with the support of John Stanhope, the then ACT chief minister, permission was given to make the memorial permanent.

"It sends a signal that ordinary Australians are not terrified of refugees, they're not terrified of people from other countries," he said.

"We're essentially a loving, caring nation, and we were being sold an image of ourselves that was completely wrong.

"And so it's a message of hope, really, that love is stronger than fear."

President of the SIEV X Memorial Association ACT Paul Meyer said the disaster remained political 25 years on, when people were "turning against migrants in general".

"Many of us have come here ourselves; a huge proportion of Australians have at least one migrant parent, if not a grandparent, so we all know that Australia's a country that welcomes people to come as long as we can contribute to it," he said.

He said as people gathered around the memorial today, more than 100 names of the drowning victims had not been made public — something both he and Mr Biddulph sought to rectify.

"We tracked down around 220 of the names, and they're written on the poles, but they should all be named ... we could really do the right thing there," Mr Biddulph said.

He said he hoped the memorial continued to act as a beacon of compassion.

"And it's a defiance of what today would be the Hansonite approach [of], 'Oh let's be terrified'," he said.

"That's a sad, awful way to live, and so we're giving a very different message."