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17 October 2026

National service marks 25 years since Australia's worst asylum seeker boat disaster

Downunder Voices Newsroom

National service marks 25 years since Australia's worst asylum seeker boat disaster

On October 19, 2001, 353 people died when a 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.

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