Today, the Indonesian ministry said that they do not support Australia’s inhumane border force ‘turnback’ policies, especially when they occur at sea.
This occurred after Indonesian fishermen were made to return six Bangladeshi people to Indonesia at the request of Australian authorities earlier this week.
The asylum seeker boat sank after two men were offered 92 million rupiah (about AUD $9000) to transport six Bangladeshi people to Australia. The boat was rescued by an Australian Border Force maritime patrol three days later after their boat sank.
A fishing boat was nearby, and 39-year-old fisherman Gab Oma said that Australian authorities gave them two sacks of rice, two boxes of bottled water, two 30 litre fuel jugs, soft drinks, eight life jackets and snacks, and told the fisherman to return the people to Kupang.
He spoke out about how the authorities did not inform them that the people were refugees:
“We feel uncomfortable because of what the Australian Navy did by handing over the six Bangladeshi immigrants. They are people who are under a lot of stress.If they knew they were being returned to Indonesia, it’s possible they would have taken over our boat and sailed back to Australia. If they were immigrants and people smugglers why not hand them straight over to the Indonesian government, why give them to fishermen?If we knew they were immigrants we would have said no. We were told a fisherman from a sunk boat, so we thought it was our Indonesian brothers. In fact we were handed over Bangladeshi immigrants. Honestly we were deceived.We were 28 miles from Amarasi beach. I know, I checked the GPS on board, no mistake. We lose out. We hadn’t caught anything (fish) yet, but we were told to go back with six immigrants and two people smugglers.”
This incident comes at a particularly bad time, seeing as the Bali Process, the regional forum to combat people-smuggling, occurs in less than a fortnight. It’s normally held every two years, but didn’t happen last year due to Indonesia disagreeing with Australia’s boat turn-back policies, and tensions between Indonesia and Australia after the Bali Nine executions.
Source: SMH.
Photos: Joy Christians / SMH.
