Australia has repatriated 16 Indonesian "boat people"

Brisbane (ANTARA News) - As many as 16 Indonesiawn boat people including 10 children who had been held at a detention centre on Christmas Island, Western Australia, had been repatriated on Saturday (Dec 15), a diplomat has said.

Indonesian Consul in Perth, capital of Western Australia, Dr Aloysius L.Madja who is now in Jakarta after accompanying the Indonesians on their flight to Jakarta arriving in the Indonesian capital on Saturday, told ANTARA News in Brisbane on Sunday that he and deputy consul for social, cultural and information affairs Ricky Suhendar were flew on a chartered Australian plane to Indonesia.

"Now I am in Jakarta. Yesterday (Saturday) we accompanied Australian Immigration officials who brought the 16 Indonesians from Christmas Island and flew to Jakarta where we arrived at 2.30 p.m.," he said.

Aloysius earlier said his side had already checked that the 16 people were really Indonesians and handed their travel documents in lieu of passports to the Australian Immigration officials.

"In an interview, the family heads of the 16 Indonesians said actually their destination was not Australia, but Saumlaki in Indonesia`s Southeast Maluku," he said.

However, as their boat had engine trouble, they continued their trip after setting up a sail, but the blew them to Southeast and eventually entered Australian territorial waters, he said.

Two of the three family heads were identified as Suwardi and Sukardi Liri from Rote Island in Indonesia`s East Nusa Tenggara province, Aloysius said.

"On their arrival at the Soekarno Hatta airport, they were handed over by the Australian immigration officials to Pak (Mr) Teguh Wardoyo, Foreign Ministry`s director for protection of Indonesian corporate bodies and citizens," he said.

On the health condition of the 16 people, he said they looked healthy and happy as they were back home, but they did not want to return to their village but rather to Mola, Wangi-Wangi subdistrict, Buton district, Southeast Sulawesi.

Scheduled to leave for Kendari, Southeast Sulawesi on Monday (Dec 17) they stayed in Jakarta in Jakarta under the auspices of the International Organization for Migration, he said.

It was reported that the cost of their flight to Jakarta was paid by the Indonesian embassy in Canberra, he added.

The Australian government`s decision to repatriate the 16 people was submitted to the Australian Immigration and Citizenship Minister Senator Chris Evans on December 7.

After being detained for several weeks on Christmas Island, the 16 Indonesians were repatriated following interviews and medical examinations.

The Australian minister said his ministry very carefully interviewed the `boat people` to ensure that their entry into Australia was really an accident.

Senator Evans also said that according to reports the Indonesians did not tell about any issue which may prompt Australia to feel obliged to give them protection under the Convention on Refugees.

He said he is a firm supporter of the Convention on Refugees and Australia one of the three countries which had accepted refugees to stay.

Before being detained on Christmas Island, the 16 people were rescured by Australian patrol boats HMAS Ararat and HMAS Tarakan when their boat sank some 650 kilometers west of Darwin, Northern Territory, on November 20, 2007.

Meanwhile, former fishery minister under the PM John Howard administration, Eric Abetz, refused to help the 16 Indonesians who were facing Australian law on eradication of poaching in the country`s territorial waters.

Abetz made the decision on his refusal following local mass media reports that the 16 people who were resolved to leave their hometown in Rote Island for Australia were small fishermen.

Abetz said it was not his business to deal with the Indonesian fishermen if they could no longer fish on the Australian waters.

ABC reported the Indonesians from Rote Island were fishermen who were affected by the Australian government`s stern measures to stamp out poaching.

The Australian government spent 603 million dollars on coping with poaching in its waters. The measure has dropped the number of poaching cases on its territorial waters in the north to 90 percent.

In the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Indonesian and Australian govenments in November, 1974, known as MoU Box 1974, Australia still recognized the rights of Indonesian traditional fishermen who have been earning a living from marine resources along the northern part of the west coast and around that the coral reefs in the past centuries.

Australia still allowe Indonesian traditional fishermen to take water and fish on islands the two countries had agreed on in the agreement.

However, Australia then declared the area as a national park.

Under the 1974 MoU, the areas where Indonesian traditional fishermen could fish as agreed to by the two countries are Scott and Seringapatam reefs, Browse Island, Ashmore reef, Cartier Island and surrounding waters.