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| An empty Australian lifeboat that carried asylum seekers turned back by Australian navy is docked at Pangandaran wharf in West Java. (AFP Photo/Timur Matahari) |
Jakarta. Australia would have stooped to a “new low”
if reports that its navy paid people-smugglers bound for Australia
thousands of dollars to turn back their boat are true, an Indonesian
government official said on Saturday.
Australia has vowed to stop asylum-seekers reaching its shores,
turning boats back to Indonesia when it can and sending asylum-seekers
to camps in impoverished Papua New Guinea and Nauru for long-term
detention.
A boat captain and two crew members arrested this week on suspicion
of human trafficking told Indonesian police Australian authorities had
paid each of them A$5,000 ($3,860) to turn back their vessel with 65
migrants on board.
The passengers, including children and a pregnant woman, were from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Myanmar.
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Immigration Minister
Peter Dutton have both denied reports of payment to the smugglers but
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has declined to comment, citing operational
security.
“Under Australian’s push-back policy we have been consistently saying
they are on a slippery slope,” Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman
Armanatha Nasir told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference.
“Should this situation be confirmed and it turns out to be true, it
would be a new low for the way the government of Australia handles the
situation on irregular migration.”
Nasir said it would be the first time such an incident occurred involving Australian authorities.
Indonesian foreign minister Retno Marsudi raised the issue with
Australia’s ambassador to Indonesia, Paul Grigson, on the sidelines of a
foreign policy conference in the Indonesian capital.
“He promised to bring my question to Canberra,” Retno told reporters. “We are really concerned, if it is confirmed.”
Indonesia plans to ask Australia for clarification, he said.
The United Nations and human rights groups have criticized Australia
over its tough asylum-seeker policy, which Abbott defends as necessary
to stop deaths at sea.
Reuters
By Randy Fabi and Nicholas Owen on 12:27 pm Jun 13, 2015
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