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Sydney - Australia is working "constructively" with Indonesia to stop boatloads of asylum-seekers using Indonesia's southern coast to try to reach Australia, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said yesterday.迷你倉Mr Cormann, also the senator for Western Australia, spoke as rescuers battled strong currents and high waves to search for dozensof people missing and feared dead one day after a boat carrying asylum seekers from the Middle East sank off the coast of Indonesia's main island of Java, killing at least 22 people, including seven children.The boat capsized and sank after being hit by high waves on Friday. Survivors said about 100 people were aboard the vessel.Mr Cormann said the tragedy highlighted the need to stop vessels trying to reach Australia, something Canberra is attempting to do via a policy that will see boats turned around if safe to do so."It is always terribly distressing when people die at sea in these sort of circumstances," he said."Now we have Operation Sovereign Borders under way, we are working very constructively with the Indonesian government, and it's very important our efforts with the Indonesian government are going to be successful."The incident came ahead of new Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott's first visit to Indonesia tomorrow.Mr Abbott has yet to comment about the latest tragedy and under his government's new media policy, the public will only be kept informed of operations at weekly briefings, the next of which is due tomorrow.Brigadier-General Tatang Zainudin, Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency's operation 文件倉hief, said 28 people from Friday's sinking were rescued and taken to the Sukabumi immigration office for identification.Among those rescued were three Lebanese who were found early yesterday after being stranded on an island about 20km from where the boat sank, Brig-Gen Zainudin said.A helicopter and more than a dozen boats were being used yesterday to search for about 35 people believed to be missing, but strong currents and high waves were hampering the operation."We fear those who are still missing were unable to survive," Brig-Gen Zainudin said.Separate to the sinking, the Australian authorities have picked up at least one other group of asylum-seekers and returned them to Indonesia.The boat carrying 40 men and four children made a distress call on Thursday and because the Indonesian authorities were unable to reach the vessel quickly, the Australians were tasked with the rescue.The asylum-seekers, who were from Pakistan, Iran and Myanmar, and two Indonesian crew, were then taken close to Indonesia and transferred to an Indonesian vessel.The Australian Broadcasting Corporation said an Australian Customs ship had also rescued a second boatload of 31 asylum-seekers and returned them to Indonesia.Interim opposition leader Chris Bowen called on the government to release information about the latest operations."The government has previously said that when there was a tragedy or a significant event at sea, then they would provide briefings," Mr Bowen said."I would call on the government... to provide those briefings to the Australian people today."AFP, AP存倉