Reluctant Rescuers

In recent years, time-hallowed rescue at sea obligations have been constrained and corroded by an increasingly ruthless and cynical Australian maritime border security system. This system routinely collects large amounts of human and signals intelligence on boats that may be on their way towards Australia's territorial waters. But it sometimes declines to acknowledge and act on that intelligence when it indicates the possibility of a 'suspected irregular entry vessel' -- a SIEV -- in peril at sea. In five major separate boat sinkings or disappearances since SIEV X in 2001, more than 400 asylum seekers bound for Australia have been lost at sea. In Reluctant Rescuers, Tony Kevin forensically examines what can be learned from exploring the public record on the four more recent tragedies in 2009-2011. His main conclusion: that the Australian border security system has lost its moral compass. Safety of life at sea must now be reaffirmed as a declared core responsibility of the system. Reluctant Rescuers will interest anyone concerned with Australian border security and the challenge of irregular arrivals of boat people, from whatever side of this debate they come. Its starting point is the obligation of any civilised government to maintain border policing regimes that respect and care for all human life in peril.