I saw Afghans kicked in head

A DROWNING medic who was desperately trying to climb aboard a Navy rescue vessel after a boat exploded off Ashmore Reef said one of her rescuers kicked two Afghan asylum seekers in the head as they tried to save themselves.

Cpl Sharon Jager, on secondment from the RAAF to help with border protection duties under Operation Resolute, was on guard duty aboard suspected illegal entry vessel 36 when it blew apart on April 16 last year.

A coronial hearing in Darwin into the deaths of five Afghan men who drowned or burned to death after asylum seekers deliberately spilled petrol and lit the vapours has heard that Cpl Jaeger was blown 15m off the side of SIEV36.

Struggling in heavy gear, and with a life jacket that failed to open, she swam away from two asylum seekers who were coming towards her. She feared they would cling to her and drown her.

Then she noticed a rigid-hulled inflatable boat coming towards her.

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Able Seaman Quinton Boorman was unable to lift Cpl Jager aboard.

She said she saw the boat's helmsman, Able Seaman Adrian Medbury, leave his position and come to assist as the two asylum seekers also tried to get aboard.

"He's moved along and physically removed the two asylum seekers and said, 'Get the f--- off her.' I saw him raise his feet and connect with the asylum seekers," she said.

Cpl Jager said the two asylum seekers were at her side in the water, but were not pulling her under. "The three of us were competing for the same position," she said.

It is not clear at this stage what happened to those two men, although counsel assisting the coroner, Stephen Walsh, QC, said in his opening address on Monday that lives could have been saved if the Navy had a less rigid policy of rescuing its own staff first.

As Mr Walsh yesterday asked Cpl Jager further questions about her evidence of witnessing the kicking, counsel for the Defence Department, Richard Niall, objected that she had only used the word "connect".

But coroner Greg Cavanagh said there was no doubt Cpl Jaeger was describing a kicking.

Mr Niall said evidence would be heard from Able Seamen Boorman and Medbury that Medbury's foot only kicked out near the struggling men.

Cpl Jager told the inquiry she felt under-trained and frightened in being sent from HMAS Childers to form a "steaming party", which maintains security.

Cpl Jager said she would leave the RAAF for good once the inquiry, expected to last three weeks, was concluded.

Source:heraldsun.com.au/