RI asks A`lia to treat its fishermen better

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia has asked Australia to treat its traditional fishermen who had been caught tresspassing that country`s territory while fishing better.

"We respect their sovereignty and law but they must also treat our fishermen more humanely," the chief executive of the Sea Security Coordinating Body (Bakorkamla), Rear Admiral Djoko Sumaryono, said here on Wednesday.

He said after meeting chief of the Australian Border Security Command, Commodore James Goldirk, that many Indonesian traditional fishermen were not familiar with international rules particularly in border areas.

"They do not speak English. They have had minimum education because they live in coastal areas," he said.

He said Indonesia had also asked the Australian government for information on legal process in case of border violations.

"Many of our fishermen do not know why they are arrested. That is because they did not realize that tresspassing the border is illegal. Therefore it would be better if the Australian government would give them proper legal aid," he said.

In response to this, James Goldirk said a mechanism had been made available for helping the Indonesian fishermen.

"We have even cooperated with the Indonesia government to assure that the fishermen are treated well," he said.

He said the Australian government had also given legal aid to those who had met the requirements. "So not all fishermen get legal aid. But we always talk with the Indonesian government on how we could help the fishermen," he said.

He admitted Australia and Indonesia had made efforts to give the fishermen knowledge about Australian law and the two countries` border regions.

"It seems the efforts were successful because the number of fishermen arrested continues to drop. Meanwhile we always tried to deport the fishermen that we have caught as soon as possible, while the legal process is continuing," he said.

Goldrik said only a few fishermen were actually jailed, and facing no charges were immediately sent home.

According to data of the Ausralian embassy here a total of 359 Indonesian-flagged boats were caught in 2006 for poaching Australian territorial waters.

Until April this year Australia had caught 26 Indonesian fishing boats.