Asylum-seekers promised 'a big ship'

Asylum-seekers promised 'a big ship' | The Australian

Paul Maley and Stephen Fitzpatrick | July 14, 2009
Article from: The Australian

THE Afghan asylum-seekers whose boat foundered in eastern Indonesia last week were told by people-smugglers they would be travelling to Australia on a "big ship" with their passports.

In a revealing insight into the way smugglers do business, Hussain Ali, 24, told The Australian the Afghan who organised his passage to Australia disappeared as he and his fellow Hazaras were due to board the ill-fated vessel.

The news came as investigators in Indonesia said the bulk of the up to 85 Afghan asylum-seekers aboard the boat had probably filtered back to Jakarta, where it is feared they will try to launch a second attempt to reach Australia.

Mr Ali said yesterday he had paid $US8000 ($10,300) for his trip to Australia, which began with a meeting with an "agent", or people-smuggler, in Kabul more than two months ago.

"He says, 'we take you to Australia by the passport, by the plane, by the big ship'," Mr Ali said. "When we arrived in Jakarta they put us in the small ship." Mr Ali said he and his fellow passengers, some of whom had travelled via Kuala Lumpur from refugee camps in Pakistan, were angry.

He said he tried to contact the agent, but his phone was off.

"We angry, we were angry," Mr Ali said. "So what should (we) do? We are illegal. His mobile was off." Only 29 of the group are in custody on the eastern island of Sumbawa. One member of that small group, Ali Yewar, alias Juma Khan, fled soon after speaking to The Australian on the weekend. According to the owner of the lodgings where police have temporarily housed the asylum-seekers, Mr Yewar's absence was discovered on Sunday when dinner was being distributed.

Another of the group, Afghan teenager Mustafa Ismael, told The Australian yesterday he had taken a 24-hour bus journey nearly two weeks ago from Jakarta to the boat's launching point, the industrial port of Surabaya, in east Java.

"I was about one month and a half in Indonesia before I left Jakarta, and then after the bus ride, we were three days to travel by sea," the 15-year-old said.

The overloaded boat's engine gave out last Tuesday night near Komodo island, in eastern Indonesia. However, it appears either crew members or someone among the Afghans was able to nurse the engine for another 24 to 48 hours and get the craft near a small port in the southwest of Sumbawa island.

"All the people who understand swimming, they went swimming (to land)," Mustafa said. "The captain just helped his brother and the other crew, but we had to leave the boat by ourselves."

Indonesian police believe the group was helped to shore by local fishermen in small groups. Police subsequently arrested several of them on buses heading for Jakarta or at a bus terminal. However, many more got away.

Those who have been apprehended are being dealt with by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organisation for Migration, the organisations that manage refugee claims in Indonesia, which does not recognise international conventions on refugees.

Yesterday, four Indonesian men accused of crewing another asylum-seeker boat that was carrying 74 passengers and was intercepted by Australian authorities on May 24 appeared before a Perth court.