SBS Dateline | www.refugeelegalaidinformation.org

In a television first on Dateline, an asylum seeker films his own desperate attempt to reach Australia by boat.

Afghan Hazara Batoor records a perilous journey as a boat packed with more than 90 people starts to take water off the Indonesian coast.

Batoor records panicked calls for help from fellow Afghans on the boat, which ends up crashing onto a beach on a remote Indonesian island. The asylum seeker tells Mark Davis of his terrifying journey.

Batoor also speaks of his voyage from Kabul which he had documented with a series of extraordinary photographs – after he fled his homeland, fearing that Taliban gunmen would target him for his work with US forces.

He is now in limbo in Indonesia with others from Afghanistan who are looking for ways to make it to Australia.

WATCH - See this amazing account of the perilous journey.

PHOTO GALLERY - See more of Batoor's pictures documenting his journey in a photo gallery on the Global Mail website.

INTERVIEW WITH MARK - Mark Davis talks to Andrew Bolton from SBS World News Australia Radio about Batoor, his background and what's likely to happen to him now.

UPDATE (MARCH 2013) - Batoor has decided against taking another boat and has instead begun the lengthy process of applying for an Australian visa. Dateline is told that his application is progressing well and that he hopes to make it to Australia soon.

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