It persuaded European Union partners to cease search and rescue missions for sinking vessels, effectively leaving people to drown.
But a new government policy to sink vessels caught fishing illegally in Indonesian waters has forced such boats into less policed waters off Papua New Guinea's southern "dog leg" region, Greenpeace claims.
Tory minister Baroness Anelay's claim last year that supporting search and rescue missions for sinking vessels was a "'pull factor', encouraging more migrants to attempt the dangerous sea crossing", convinced others in the European Union.
In May, footage of starving Rohingya refugees, abandoned by their traffickers on sinking vessels and initially refused permission to land by Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, brought international attention to the human rights catastrophe unfolding across Asia.
Orion harassment of Griffon shipping includes detaining merchant vessels, siphoning of refined oil products, and eventually firing upon and sinking vessels".
Walsh is captain of a rapidly sinking vessel, and many of the openings in the hull are because of his doing.
In 1944 he made newspaper headlines when his ship was torpedoed, leaving him to cut the lifeboat away from the sinking vessel – "Burly West Indian Saved Crew".
Offshore processing restarted in earnest in 2001 after the Tampa affair, when a Norwegian freighter rescued 433 asylum seekers from their sinking vessel, 140km from Christmas Island.
A close-up underlines the boat's name, "Damfino," which was also the name of the majestically sinking vessel in Keaton's 1921 short "The Boat".
After reports that some fishing boats had ignored the sinking vessel, local fisherman said they were often hesitant to pick up migrants at sea since they risked their boats being seized under Italy's tough laws on illegal migrants.
