August 24, 2001. The Palapa, a small Indonesian fishing boat, is stranded in the ocean.
The vessel is barely seaworthy. It’s crammed with 433 asylum seekers, mostly Hazara Afghans, fleeing persecution in their home country and travelling via Indonesia to seek refuge in Australia.
The wooden boat has weathered a bad storm and now floats 140 kilometres from the Australian territory of Christmas Island.
Its occupants are exhausted, dehydrated and fearing for their lives.
They could not have imagined the next eight days would reshape Australia’s politics and send shock waves around the world for decades.
After two days adrift, they were rescued when Norwegian freighter, the MV Tampa, diverted course to answer the boat’s distress call.
But where to head next became an increasingly difficult question.
How ‘stop the boats’ changed the world. By Anna Levy for 'Tampa: The Turning Point', ABC iview