ID :
110603
Tue, 03/09/2010 - 07:59
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https://oananews.org//node/110603
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News Focus:INDONESIA AGAIN FOILS AFGHAN PEOPLE SMUGGLING ATTEMPT
By Eliswan Azly
Mataram, W Nusa Tenggara, March 7 (ANTARA) - Indonesian police last Wednesday again arrested around 67 illegal immigrants from Afghanistan after detaining 56 others off the eastern island of Lombok in September 2009 for trying to travel to Australia.
They were eventually accommodated at a number of non-star hotels in East Lombok, Nusatengga Barat province, pending the settlement of their case after there had been coordination with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), chief of the West Nusa Tenggara provincial police`s information service Adjunct Senior Commissioner Sudjoko Aman said on Sunday.
All the expenses arising from their accommodation and meals would be borne by the IOM, he said.
IOM would also facilitate the deportation of the Afghan immigrants to their home country or find a third country as their final destination, Aman said.
The Afghan immigrants were captured in their hideouts around Temeak beach, Pamongkong village, Jerowaru sub-district, East Lombok district, while waiting for a boat that would take them to Australia.
East Lombok police chief Adjunct Senior Commissioner Erwin Zadma said last Wednesday the Afghans had been in East Lombok for four days before their arrest.
Indonesia has frequently been used by foreign asylum seekers as a transit on the way to Australia as their final destination.
Over the past three years, Australia has been continually bugged by the arrivals of asylum seeker boats in its waters.
There has been an influx of Afghan illegal immigrants trying to enter Australia through Indonesian sea since January 2009. Hundreds of illegal immigrants including youth, children and women have been trying to reach Australia and other western countries illegally. A Taliban insurgency, unemployment, corruption, skyrocketing prices e and a bleak future in their country, compel thousands of Afghan people to think about fleeing the country.
Said Nizar SH, LLM, an expert on international law who is a lecturer at Hassanuddin University in Makassar, said the waves of illegal immigrants would increase unless there is peace in their home country.
The prolonged presence of troops of the US-led coalition of countries in Afghanistan in a bid to help the government had actually added the misery of the local people and motivated some of them to abandon their home country to try to reach Australia as their destination in their effort to seek peace, he said.
The flow of illegal immigrants from Afghanistan would remain a problem, if the war in their country was not stopped, Nizar said adding that the ordeals they underwent to reach the country of their destination were often full of life-threatening risks.
In the second week of January 2010, a boat carrying Afghan asylum seekers sank in Indonesian waters causing four of them to die and another 18 to go missing. The Indonesian government did not bother to find out what happened with the surviving Afghans, according to the Press TV website.
In April, 2009 Indonesian police detained about 22 Afghan migrants . They were said to be trying to enter Australia by boats with the assistance of human smugglers. Later, in May of the same year, about 70 other Aghans were arrested by Indonesian police.
During the last couple of months more than 300 Afghans have been arrested and detained by Indonesian police.
The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC)had demanded all countries where Afghan refugees happened to be to treat them in accordance with the principles of the international human rights convention.
In a statement after some Australian and Indonesian newspapers reported about the plight of detained refugees, AIHRC criticized the Indonesian government and called for the treatment of the refugees according to international human rights convention.
The tragedy hit the headlines in Afghanistan last year when about 15 Afghans were found dead in eastern Indonesia, a website said. It was then that the Foreign Ministry bothered to take up the issue at diplomatic level with Indonesian officials asking the release of the arrested refugees. It might be mentioned that the dead bodies of the victims of the human smuggling operation were not returned to their relatives.
The recent wave of attempts to flee Afghanistan through illegal immigration shows how little confidence the youth of the central Asian country have in their country`s future. They rather risk their life to reach Australia or any other western country than remain in their own country.
Some of the Afghan immigrants detained in Indonesia in their statements to the media in Jakarta have demanded UNHCR intervention to rescue them from their plight. After the tragedies that have happened in the recent past with Afghan asylum seekers, it would be strange if UNHCR remained idle in the face of the continuing flow of illegal Afghan immigrants to Australia via Indonesia.
In response to the matter, the Australian government had consistently categorized people smuggling as a global and regional problem.
The UNHCR 2008 Global Trends report said that there were 42 million forcibly displaced persons worldwide at the end of 2008, including 15.2 million refugees.
Both passengers and crew members of the captured boats were transported to the Australian Immigration`s detention center on Christmas Island to undergo security, identity and health checks as well as their reasons for travel established.
The Indonesian consulate in Perth noted that there were a number of Indonesians among the captains and crew members of the boats bringing asylum seekers to Australia.
Indonesia serves as a transit for Australia-bound illegal immigrants, mostly from Iraq and Afghanistan. Late last year, Jakarta arrested 33, including 18 whi had run away from their holding accommodations who were trying to find passage to Australia.
Mataram, W Nusa Tenggara, March 7 (ANTARA) - Indonesian police last Wednesday again arrested around 67 illegal immigrants from Afghanistan after detaining 56 others off the eastern island of Lombok in September 2009 for trying to travel to Australia.
They were eventually accommodated at a number of non-star hotels in East Lombok, Nusatengga Barat province, pending the settlement of their case after there had been coordination with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), chief of the West Nusa Tenggara provincial police`s information service Adjunct Senior Commissioner Sudjoko Aman said on Sunday.
All the expenses arising from their accommodation and meals would be borne by the IOM, he said.
IOM would also facilitate the deportation of the Afghan immigrants to their home country or find a third country as their final destination, Aman said.
The Afghan immigrants were captured in their hideouts around Temeak beach, Pamongkong village, Jerowaru sub-district, East Lombok district, while waiting for a boat that would take them to Australia.
East Lombok police chief Adjunct Senior Commissioner Erwin Zadma said last Wednesday the Afghans had been in East Lombok for four days before their arrest.
Indonesia has frequently been used by foreign asylum seekers as a transit on the way to Australia as their final destination.
Over the past three years, Australia has been continually bugged by the arrivals of asylum seeker boats in its waters.
There has been an influx of Afghan illegal immigrants trying to enter Australia through Indonesian sea since January 2009. Hundreds of illegal immigrants including youth, children and women have been trying to reach Australia and other western countries illegally. A Taliban insurgency, unemployment, corruption, skyrocketing prices e and a bleak future in their country, compel thousands of Afghan people to think about fleeing the country.
Said Nizar SH, LLM, an expert on international law who is a lecturer at Hassanuddin University in Makassar, said the waves of illegal immigrants would increase unless there is peace in their home country.
The prolonged presence of troops of the US-led coalition of countries in Afghanistan in a bid to help the government had actually added the misery of the local people and motivated some of them to abandon their home country to try to reach Australia as their destination in their effort to seek peace, he said.
The flow of illegal immigrants from Afghanistan would remain a problem, if the war in their country was not stopped, Nizar said adding that the ordeals they underwent to reach the country of their destination were often full of life-threatening risks.
In the second week of January 2010, a boat carrying Afghan asylum seekers sank in Indonesian waters causing four of them to die and another 18 to go missing. The Indonesian government did not bother to find out what happened with the surviving Afghans, according to the Press TV website.
In April, 2009 Indonesian police detained about 22 Afghan migrants . They were said to be trying to enter Australia by boats with the assistance of human smugglers. Later, in May of the same year, about 70 other Aghans were arrested by Indonesian police.
During the last couple of months more than 300 Afghans have been arrested and detained by Indonesian police.
The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC)had demanded all countries where Afghan refugees happened to be to treat them in accordance with the principles of the international human rights convention.
In a statement after some Australian and Indonesian newspapers reported about the plight of detained refugees, AIHRC criticized the Indonesian government and called for the treatment of the refugees according to international human rights convention.
The tragedy hit the headlines in Afghanistan last year when about 15 Afghans were found dead in eastern Indonesia, a website said. It was then that the Foreign Ministry bothered to take up the issue at diplomatic level with Indonesian officials asking the release of the arrested refugees. It might be mentioned that the dead bodies of the victims of the human smuggling operation were not returned to their relatives.
The recent wave of attempts to flee Afghanistan through illegal immigration shows how little confidence the youth of the central Asian country have in their country`s future. They rather risk their life to reach Australia or any other western country than remain in their own country.
Some of the Afghan immigrants detained in Indonesia in their statements to the media in Jakarta have demanded UNHCR intervention to rescue them from their plight. After the tragedies that have happened in the recent past with Afghan asylum seekers, it would be strange if UNHCR remained idle in the face of the continuing flow of illegal Afghan immigrants to Australia via Indonesia.
In response to the matter, the Australian government had consistently categorized people smuggling as a global and regional problem.
The UNHCR 2008 Global Trends report said that there were 42 million forcibly displaced persons worldwide at the end of 2008, including 15.2 million refugees.
Both passengers and crew members of the captured boats were transported to the Australian Immigration`s detention center on Christmas Island to undergo security, identity and health checks as well as their reasons for travel established.
The Indonesian consulate in Perth noted that there were a number of Indonesians among the captains and crew members of the boats bringing asylum seekers to Australia.
Indonesia serves as a transit for Australia-bound illegal immigrants, mostly from Iraq and Afghanistan. Late last year, Jakarta arrested 33, including 18 whi had run away from their holding accommodations who were trying to find passage to Australia.
