At least three Australia-bound asylum seekers have died and more than 150 others rescued from the ocean after their boat sank off Indonesia’s Java Island

At least three Australia-bound asylum seekers have died and more than 150 others rescued from the ocean after their boat sank off Indonesia’s Java Island.

Australian officials informed Indonesia on Tuesday evening about the sinking boat that was on its way to Australia’s Christmas Island.

Police said that the three dead were two children and one woman.

Local rescue officials said on Wednesday that 157 people were rescued, estimating there could have been “up to 200” people on the boat, while a survivor said there were 250 passengers on board.

“The 157 rescued have been taken to an immigration centre, where they have been given food and water,” said the head of the rescue operation Rochmali, who uses a single name.

The incident came after Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd signed an agreement with Papua New Guinea on July 19 to send all asylum-seekers arriving by boat to the poverty-stricken island nation.

“From now on, any asylum seeker who arrives in Australia by boat will have no chance of being settled in Australia as refugee,” Rudd said.

Those assessed to be a refugee would be permanently settled in Papua New Guinea. And those whose applications are not successful would be sent back home or to third countries.

The Coalition for Asylum Seekers called the measure shocking, stressing that Canberra has decided to shirk from its responsibilities assigned under the United Nations Refugees Convention.

Australia struggles to curb a dramatic increase in the number of boats arriving in the country with refugees.

More than 15,000 asylum-seekers have arrived so far this year. In 2012, the country received 16,000 asylum requests.