By Samuel Miller
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America and Oceania
MELBOURNE, Australia — Earlier this week, migrants reported to United Nations workers they witnessed an Australian official hand cash to the crew of a people-smuggling boat to take passengers back to Indonesia. Sixty five migrants, including 54 from Sri Lanka, 10 from Bangladesh and one from Myanmar, gave their accounts to employees of the United Nations refugee agency in Indonesia, where they were brought ashore and placed in detention.
Babar Baloch, a spokesman for the United Nations refugee agency in Geneva, briefly detailed what had been relayed to him by local sources and migrants.
“They are telling us that they were intercepted by Australian officials at sea,” said Baloch. “They were taken on board an Australian customs boat for four days. They were then put on two blue boats and the crews were paid to take them back to Indonesia.”
The allegation of payments to people-smugglers has strained relations between Indonesia and Australia, which has a policy of turning back all migrants who arrive by boat.
Australia has refused to confirm or deny the payment; furthermore, Prime Minister Tony Abbott went on the defensive Friday when asked about the claim. Abbott refused to comment on operational matters, but said that the government “would stop the boats by hook or by crook.”
Prime Minister Abbott also went on to say, “We will do whatever is reasonably necessary to protect our country from people smuggling and from the effects of this evil and damaging trade that costs lives.”
Agus Barnas, spokesman for Indonesia’s coordinating ministry for political, legal and security affairs, said Abbott’s comments could be interpreted by Australian officials as endorsing bribery and might encourage people smuggling.
Indonesia could perhaps take action against Australia under the 2000 United Nations Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air; at this time, however, such a move is considered unlikely. Indonesia’s foreign minister, Retno Marsudi, has demanded a response from the Abbott administration and said she had taken up the issue with Australia’s ambassador to Jakarta.
Relations between Indonesia and Australia remain strained following the execution of two Australian Nationals part of the so-called Bali 9 group of drug smugglers in April. Australia recalled its ambassador from Jakarta following the incident.
On the domestic front, it is unclear whether such a policy would be in breach of Australian law. An Australian political party have written to the Australian Federal Police asking them to investigate what laws have been violated. Experts suggest the alleged policy would be a breach of the provisions of the Criminal Code outlawing people smuggling.
The allegations have arisen amid a humanitarian crisis in which Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and international aid organizations have been trying to manage the exodus of thousands of desperate, ill-treated migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh.
Migrants escaping poverty or oppression typically use Indonesia as a transit point for the perilous journey in often barely seaworthy vessels to Australia.
For more information, please see:
Yahoo News — Migrants say they witnessed Australian payment to boat crew — 17 June 2015
BBC News — Migrant boat allegations cast cloud over Australia — 15 June 2015
CNN — Australia urged to come clean over claims it paid traffickers — 15 June 2015
NY Times — Asian Migrants Say Australia Paid Smugglers to Turn Back — 12 June 2015
Yahoo News — Indonesian official decries Australia PM’s asylum boat stance — 12 June 2015
