Journey of hope ends in disaster

Ibrar Hussain Rajabi Source: Supplied

BOARDING an asylum boat in Indonesia at 11pm last Thursday were three Hazara teenagers full of hope for a better life in Australia.

One teen's father and brother had been murdered and his mother wanted her son to escape, another had wanted peace while the third had a cousin waiting in Perth for him, their families say.

Within hours their vessel, carrying 72 asylum seekers, had sunk and just 14 survivors had been plucked from the water near the Sunda Strait, south of Indonesia.

The families of Mahdi Fadayee, 16 and 17-year-olds Rehmatullah Muhammad Jan and Ibrar Hussain Rajabi are clinging to hope they were alive.

A freind of Ibrar's family, Hassan Rezai, said from his home in North Carolina in the USA that the teenager had lost his father to the Taliban and his brother was murdered on the Iranian border 18 months ago.

The pair had spoken online early last week, he said.

"He was excited, he was happy, he was telling me `If I reach Australia my future will be bright, I will save my family,"' Mr Rezai said.

His distraught mother had wanted him to have a new life in Australia.

Rehmatullah, a Hazara whose family is in Quetta, Pakistan, told relative Mehdi Fabre he was excited about the prospect of reaching Australia.

"He was in search of freedom, he was in search of peace, he was in search of a better life," Mr Fabre said.

The teenager, who has two sisters and a brother, last spoke to family on Wednesday morning and had spent almost three weeks in Indonesia waiting for a vessel.

Mahdi left his accommodation in Indonesia on Wednesday and called his family on Thursday night telling them he was "now on the sea."

His cousin in Perth, Ali Mohammad Fidayee said the next call his family received was from a friend who said "14 passengers mostly friends were rescued by fisherman but Mahdi was not one of them."

Mr Fidayee, who said he was "disappointed" by Indonesia's limited efforts to find the stricken vessel, said his cousin had wanted a life of "freedom" in Australia.

The relatives and friend of the teenagers said they had been disappointed by Indonesia's search efforts.

There have been reports a second vessel may have capsized last Wednesday, also close to Indonesia.

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