Suspected Irregular Entry Vessel (SIEV) was the operational term used by the Australian Defence Force and Australian Coastwatch for maritime vessels which appear to be attempting to reach Australia clandestinely.
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The legal context was of vessels that were entering Australian waters without authorisation. Previously the term 'Suspected Illegal Entry Vessel' was used. These boats are almost exclusively carrying asylum seekers who have departed from Indonesia on the final leg of a journey which started in countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka after paying "people smugglers". During Operation Relex, 12 SIEVs were intercepted. Four were forced back to Indonesia, and three sank.
SIEVs were given numerical designations. The vessel involved in the children overboard affair was the SIEV-4. The vessel that sank in 2001, killing 353 asylum seekers (mostly women and children) was designated by the press as SIEV X (a temporary operational term used by Coastwatch prior to designation, the SIEV-X often referred to in the press was reported not to have been detected prior to sinking).
List of notable SIEVs
Inquiries and inquests
The Siev X, Siev 36 and Siev 221 events were followed by a number of inquiries, articles and books; Siev 36 had a coronial inquest held in Darwin as the incident had occurred in the Commonwealth Territory of Ashmore and Cartier Islands over which the Northern Territory has coronial jurisdiction, and the Siev 221 coronial inquest was held in Perth due to Western Australia having coronial jurisdiction in the Commonwealth Territory of Christmas Island