Smugglers called ‘scum’

AUSTRALIA’S prime minister yesterday denounced people smugglers who set hopeful refugees adrift in rickety boats as “scum” and pledged to step up efforts to thwart them, after one vessel exploded at sea and killed three people.

The wooden fishing boat was carrying 47 Afghan asylum seekers and two crew when the blast happened off Australia’s coast on Thursday.

The death toll could rise, because two people were still missing and five others were on life-support in hospital, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said. Rudd also said his government would take a tough line against people smugglers, who are paid by would-be immigrants to transport them to a new country.