Search on for mother of survivor

JAKARTA: A 10-year-old survivor of last week’s asylumseeker boat disaster off the Indonesian coast has been placed in the care of the Afghanistan embassy i n Jakarta as efforts to find his mother continue.

Omed was the only child to have survived the tragedy, which cost the lives of about 100 people when the boat they were taking to Australia sank in the Sunda Strait.

His father, along with an uncle and a cousin, disappeared and are believed to be among those who drowned.

Omed has been given some hope of being reunited with family after another uncle living in Canada contacted authorities.

Efforts to find the boy’s mother, believed to be still in Afghanistan, have so far proved fruitless.

A spokeswoman Afghan embassy in for the Jakarta said yesterday that the search for Omed’s mother would continue but she expressed serious concern that the mother may never be found.

Although Omed was first taken to the office of the Director-General of Immigration after Indonesian officials declared he was a ‘‘special case’’, he was later handed over to Afghan officials.

The spokeswoman confirmed he was in the care of the Afghanistan embassy.

His uncle is travelling Jakarta from Canada.

There were also discussions taking place between Afghan officials and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees about the possibility of Omed being placed in his uncle’s care.

He was one of just 55 people to have been pulled out of the water the day after the boat sank last Wednesday on its way to Christmas Island.

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