Vol. 75/No. 34      September 26, 2011

“We hear every day in this country about ‘people smugglers,’ but who are they?” said Eko Waluyo from Indonesian Solidarity at an August 26 rally here in support of refugee rights. Coming mainly from impoverished villages in eastern Indonesia they are paid a few hundred dollars to work as deckhands and cooks on boats that bring asylum-seekers to the remote Australian territories of Christmas Island and Ashmore Reef.

Australian authorities often use wrist X-rays to estimate age. As a result some 70 are being held in adult prisons despite insisting they are under 18 years old, Waluyo said. Some have been held for up to nine months before being charged and almost all have been refused bail.

Over the last three years, 292 Indonesian workers have been charged and another 138 convicted for people-smuggling offenses, according to the Australian.

Speaking at a forum organized by Indonesian Solidarity August 15, lawyer Edwina Lloyd said her 15-year-old client has been refused bail and is being held in a maximum security prison.

There is a minimum five-year prison term, with the possibility of parole after three, for first-time “people smuggling.”
 
 
Related articles:
California rally opposes anti-immigrant program
Australian gov’t hits snag in overseas refugee ‘solution’  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home