Iranian People Smuggler Arrested at Request of Australian Government

Jakarta Globe, Farouk Arnaz, Nov 23, 2014

In this handout photo released by the Indonesian National Search and Rescue
 Agency (Basarnas) on July 4, 2012, shows a boat believed to be carrying up to
 180 asylum-seekers spotted south of Java and sailing towards Australian waters.
(AFP Photo)

Jakarta. Indonesia’s National Police have arrested an Iranian people smuggler who was allegedly involved in the death of more than 200 people in a disaster off the coast of East Java in 2011.

Mohammed Naghi Karimi Azar, 54, was arrested in an apartment in Central Jakarta on Oct. 29 at the request of Australian authorities, police said on Sunday.

Azar is alleged to have coordinated a notorious people smuggling attempt that ended in disaster off the coast off Trenggalek in December 2011. A boat en-route to Australia that was carrying some 250 asylum seekers from Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan sank in rough seas. Only 47 survivors were rescued.

Sr. Comr. Budi Santoso, chief of the National Police’s people smuggling sub-division, said on Sunday that the arrest was carried out following a request from the Australian government.

“We’re still waiting for the decision on when the extradition can be conducted,” Agus said. “The suspect is charged under the 1979 Law No. 1 on Extradition and 2010 Law No. 8 on the Indonesia-Australia Extradition Agreement.”

Azar, who has Iranian citizenship, has been held at a prison administered by the National Police’s general crime division since he was arrested.

The 2011 incident is believed to be the largest loss of life from a sinking of one of the many boats packed with Asian and Middle Eastern migrants who undertake the perilous voyage from Indonesia to Australia.

Two other alleged people smugglers, Abu Anwar and Matim, are still being sought for their role in the tragedy.

Indonesians Jailed in Australia Over Deadly Boat Voyage

Jakarta Globe – AFP, Jun 05, 2014

In this handout photo released by the Indonesian National Search and Rescue
 Agency (Basarnas) on July 4, 2012, taken from an Indonesian Air Force plans,
 shows a boat believed to be carrying up to 180 asylum-seekers spotted off Indonesia
 about 50 nautical miles south of Java and sailing towards Australian waters.
(AFP Photo/Basarnas)

Sydney. Two Indonesian nationals were Thursday sentenced to six and nine years in jail in Australia for people smuggling, after a doomed venture in which more than 100 people drowned.

The men were not charged with organizing the people-smuggling venture or with the deaths of any passengers who perished when the boat sank off Christmas Island in June 2012.

Boy Djara, thought to be aged 26 or 27, was effectively second in charge on the boat which was crammed with more than 200 asylum-seekers mostly from Pakistan and Afghanistan when it sank.

He was found guilty of six counts of people-smuggling in Perth District Court and sentenced to nine years in jail, with a non-parole period of six years, a court official confirmed.

His co-accused Justhen, 44, who was a deckhand on the ill-fated voyage and goes by one name, was found guilty of trying to illegally assist non-citizens into Australia and sentenced to six years’ jail.

He will be eligible for parole after four years.

Scores of asylum-seekers have drowned when their boats foundered en route to Australia in recent years, most of them having paid people-smugglers to bring them on wooden vessels from Indonesia.

In the incident in June 2012, the small wooden fishing boat started taking on water and eventually capsized about 200 kilometers from Australia’s Indian Ocean territory of Christmas Island.

Australian authorities rescued 110 people, but the rest could not be saved.

In sentencing, Judge Patrick O’Neal said the vessel was overloaded and carrying life jackets which were not suitable for the open sea.

“If sheep or cattle had been transported like this, people would have rightly lined the wharves… to protest,” O’Neal said in sentencing comments reported by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Australia tightened its rules regarding asylum-seekers following a series of sinkings, with those arriving by boat now refused resettlement in Australia and sent to Papua New Guinea or Nauru.

In July 2013, unrest rocked the centre in Nauru, causing Aus$60 million ($55 million) in damage and prompting charges against 63 asylum-seekers.

Nauru Magistrate Ropate Cabealawa on Thursday jailed two people over the riots — giving one a sentence of two years and five months for unlawful assembly and rioting and another 11 months for rioting, Australian Associated Press said.

Agence France-Presse

Boat with illegal migrants sinks off Indonesia, 300 missing

Reuters, Jakarta, Sat Dec 17, 2011

(Reuters) - A boat carrying illegal immigrants heading for Australia sank off the coast of east Java in Indonesia and over 300 people were missing with many feared dead, a senior emergency official said.

Only 76 people of 380 people on board had been rescued, said Sahrul Arifin, the head of emergency and logistics at the East Java Disaster Mitigation Center.

He said strong waves wrecked the wooden boat about 90 km (56 miles) out to sea late Saturday night. "Our search and rescue team have begun sweeping the water around where the accident took place but we are now sending body bags to that area," Arifin said.

He said the passengers were mainly believed to be illegal migrants from countries including Iran and Afghanistan. Many boat people from the Middle East and Asia use Indonesia as a transit point en route to Australia.

Local TV showed images of more than a dozen shocked-looking survivors huddled in a clinic in Trenggalek, a town on Java island's southern coast.

Many economic migrants from the Middle East attempt to cross the Indian Ocean in boats in search of a better life in Australia.

Australia-based refugee advocate Jack Smit told Reuters first reports indicated the boat was overloaded. He suggested it might involve a new and inexperienced people-smuggling operator trying to make money quickly, as the boat reportedly left from the same port in Java as another that sank recently.

"It all points to new operators, and also the population of the boats is changing," Smit, of Project SafeCom Inc, told Reuters. "It seems to me it's a new operator that took a risk that was too big."

Smit said there appeared to be an increasing number of Iranians taking to the boats and fewer Afghans than previously. He estimated that 2 to 5 percent of thousands of asylum-seekers taking to boats in this way each year died en route, with many deaths not reported.

Asylum-seekers often pay thousands of dollars to board the boats, whose journeys are organized by people-smuggling networks based in Indonesia using ramshackle vessels often poorly equipped for the perilous journey to Australian waters. This sinking is the latest of several such disasters in recent years.

(Reporting by Olivia Rondonuwu, Additional reporting by Chris McCall in Sydney; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

37 illegal immigrants captured in Jakarta Bay

Hasyim Widhiarto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 04/06/2010 4:25 PM

Thirty-seven male Afghan nationals were captured by patrolling officers from Jakarta Police's water police division in waters off Bidadari Island in Jakarta Bay early Tuesday and admitted they were heading to Australia to look for political asylum.

Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Boy Rafli Amar said the officers found the illegal immigrants floating in two fishing boats crewed by two Indonesian nationals identified as Ending and Ardun.

"We are still questioning them to find out how they entered Indonesian waters and which route they used," Boy said, adding that the illegal immigrants now came under the division’s jurisdiction.

Boy said the police were now coordinating with UNHCR representatives in Jakarta to decide the future of the asylum seekers.

"But it is almost certain they will be deported from Indonesia," he said.

12 more boat people detained in Makassar

Andi Hajramurni, The Jakarta Post, Makassar | Sat, 01/02/2010 6:23 PM

Twelve boat people heading for Australia were arrested recently in South Suluwesi, Ujung Tanah Makassar Police chief says.

The immigrants, who had stopped to repairs their boat on Kodingreng Island, South Sulawesi, were captured on Thursday, Ujung Tanah Makassar Police chief Comr. Ricky Lesmana said on Saturday.

“We received a report from a member of the public on Thursday morning. We brought them to Makassar,” Ricky said.

Eight of the boat people are Afghanistan nationals, and the other four are from Vietnam.

The group had stopped at Kodringreng Island at around 5 a.m. because of technical problems with their boat. After requesting help from locals they were reported to the police.

The group is currently being held at the Makassar Immigration detention center awaiting further questioning.

Over the past week at least 35 boat people have been apprehended by local law enforcement officers, and put in detention.

Of the 35 boat people, four have been taken to Jakarta because they had immigration documents, but the remaining 31 are still at Makassar Class I Immigration Detention Center in Bollangi, Makassar Immigration detention center staffer Dwi Laksono said.

Indonesia stops 17 asylum seekers

Bigpond News, Monday, December 28, 2009, 04:22am

Indonesian police have detained in East Java 17 Afghan and Iraqi asylum seekers bound for Australia.

Indonesian police say they have detained in East Java province 17 Afghan and Iraqi asylum seekers who were trying to reach Australia.

The men - 14 Afghans and three Iraqis - were arrested early Sunday at the coast in Sidoarjo district, district police chief Muhammad Iqbal told Agence France-Presse.

'A wooden boat was waiting there to take them to Australia. We managed to get to the migrants before they could get on to the boat,' he added.

'They had no documents on them and they wanted to go to Australia to seek asylum,' Iqbal said.

'We are still questioning the migrants. We suspect they were brought here by people smugglers,' he added.

Indonesia is a key staging point for smugglers taking Afghans, Sri Lankans and other nationals on a perilous sea journey to Australia.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is under intense political pressure over the issue after a surge in arrivals via Indonesia this year.

Related Article:

47 Sri Lankan Asylum Seekers Leave Indonesia for Australia, Romania