Asylum seeker tells how refugees are conned by smugglers The Iranian man with his son, who cannot be identified, at Villawood. His wife died in transit to Australia. AN asylum seeker whose wife lost her life while they tried to find a better life in Australia has said from detention that asylum boats should be stopped. Playing with his toddler son, the grief-stricken 33-year-old Iranian computer engineer described how losing his wife on a boat last month made him realise how dangerous the journey was. He now lives in immigration residential housing next to Villawood detention centre with another man whose wife and two of three young children drowned in a boat sinking. Crammed on a fishing boat with 74 others, the man, who cannot be identified, said he could do little as his unwell wife deteriorated and died on June 15, the day the navy found their vessel. "It was very hard, we had no water, no food, it was a small boat, 75 people," he said. In Indonesia they said the trip was one day, but it took five days. My wife died in the boat on the last day. The man, who is yet to be interviewed by immigration officials, said he was told by people in Iran, where social conditions had made him want to flee to Australia for a better job, that he could pay notorious alleged people smuggler Sayed Ali to travel to Australia. He was told the journey would take a day, was safe and that when he arrived he could expect a visa and "very good conditions." Unaware around 1000 people have drowned or vanished on the way to Australia since 2008, the man said in the wake of losing his wife that boats should be stopped. "Yes, it is very, very dangerous," he said. His comments came as a new vessel with 129 people on board was detected and 36 passengers rescued by a merchant vessel were brought to Christmas Island. Immigration authorities are bracing for a surge in arrivals with good weather conditions around Christmas Island. Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr, who has been outspoken about Iranians coming by boat as economic migrants who can't be involuntarily returned because their country won't accept them, said the government needed to crack down on people who dump travel documents. "Now, one of the things very specifically we need to look at is the practice ... of people-smugglers bringing into Australian waters, people on vessels who destroy their travel documents and who've rehearsed a story, each of them an identical memorised story," he told the ABC. It is understood people smugglers have produced cards for asylum seekers to memorise answers to questions from immigration officials, including to say they are Christian and face persecution. The Coalition's policy since at least 2010 has been to presume against refugee status for any person who arrives on a boat without documentation.