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The Tampa affair shocked the world. Twenty years on, those involved tell their stories
ABC Radio National / By Kirsti Melville and Anna Kelsey-Sugg for The History Listen
When Christian Maltau, the chief officer on the Norwegian shipping container ship MV Tampa, helped to rescue more than 400 asylum seekers from a sinking boat 20 years ago, he couldn’t have known the fallout that would follow.
The event kicked off months of news headlines and fierce international debate in the lead up to the 2001 Australian federal election.
But on that day two decades ago, Maltau and his captain were simply responding to a call for help.
“We were sailing from Fremantle up to Singapore …[and] we received a message from the Australian Coast Guard telling us there was a…