Asylum seekers drown on way to Australia

AT least 15 asylum seekers are believed to have drowned after their boat sank off the coast of Indonesia as it made its way to Australia.

An official with the Indonesian search and rescue agency, BASARNAS, has confirmed that more than 20 survivors had been recovered.

The BASARNAS official said that 15 people had drowned after the boat they were on sank on Friday.

"Local police are saying that 25 people have been rescued," he told AAP.

But he also warned that the death toll was likely to rise.

"The casualties might add up," he said.

The official said BASARNAS was advised of a boat in distress about 3pm local time on Friday.

Indonesian authorities said the boat had started taking on water off the coast of West Java, near the Sukabumi region, earlier on Friday.

"Local police say that 25 survivors have been taken to a madrasah (boarding school) in the Cianjur area," the BASARNAS official said.

"The search is still taking place."

It's believed to be the first fatal attempted asylum-seeker crossing under the coalition government, and comes after another group of 44 asylum seekers were rescued by an Australian navy vessel in the Sunda Strait on Thursday.

The group rescued on Thursday, which included four children, were offloaded at Indah Kiat port at Banten in the western part of Java at 8am on Friday.

The two incidents come amid a ramping up in tensions between Canberra and Jakarta over the asylum seeker issue, and days ahead of talks in Jakarta between Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

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