Amnesty International: Australia Boat Turnbacks and People Smugglers

Summary: Border Force and Royal Australian Navy officials encourage Australia boat turnbacks and people smugglers, Amnesty International's October report says.

Australian Customs and Border Protection Service -- An Offshore Patrol Vessel of the Customs Marine Unit docked in Darwin, Northern Territory: Bidgee, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Six people smugglers are alleged to receive $32,000 from Border Force and Royal Australian Navy officials for taking a boat filled with 65 asylum seekers from Australia to Indonesia in May 2015, according to an Amnesty International report published in October 2015.

Amnesty International bases alleged Australia boat turnbacks in By Hook or By Crook: Australia’s Abuse of Asylum-Seekers at Sea upon interviews in August 2015 with Indonesian officials, one Sri Lankan crewman, five Indonesian crewmen and 62 asylum seekers from Bangladesh, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. The report contains photographs of payments in $100 bills, after confiscation by Indonesian police, and testimony of two crewmen receiving $6,000 each and four crewmen $5,000 each.

The report describes the testimony of one asylum seeker witnessing the transfer in the kitchen of a white envelope from Australian officials, with an English-Bahasa interpreter, to the boat captain May 24, 2015. It explains anchoring May 5, 2015, at Greenhill Island near Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, of the boat headed to New Zealand from Pelabuhan Ratu, West Java, Indonesia, and transferring of the crewmen and one 1-year-old, two 7-year-olds, four female and 58 male asylum seekers to two poorly equipped boats. It follows the two boats, through the abandoning of the Jasmine for running out of fuel and the foundering of the Kanak on the Landu reef near Rote Island May 31, 2015.

Passengers give accounts of the original, 25-meter-long (82-feet-long) two-deck Andika as better-provisioned than its two replacements. The report has descriptions of the original vessel as including cabin, GPS device, indoor kitchen, indoor toilet, life jackets, maritime maps and satellite phone and of the replacements as sharing fire extinguishers, GPS device, life jackets and map with three potential landing locations circled.

The report indicates that the physical evidence of boat, money and provisions and the “remarkably consistent” testimony of the 68 interviewees are supplemented by passengers taking photographs with cell phones and videoing the transfer from the fuel-spent boat after the departure of the two Australian Navy, two Border Force, and six speedboat escorts May 31, 2015.

Amnesty International judges as breaches of international laws the interceptions of May 17 near East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia, and May 22 in the Arafura Sea between Northern Australia and Papua Province, Indonesia, and the escorts of May 23/24 to off Greenhill Island and May 31 to international waters.

Ratification of the United Nations’ International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, and Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air keeps Australia from endangering, ill-treating and people smuggling migrants, and ignoring rights risks, according to Amnesty International.

Australians look to February 2016 for issuance of the official report by the Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee of the Australian Senate.

Amnesty International asylum seekers in immigration detention in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, after interception and turnback of their boat by Australian officials, August 2015 (left) and Australian border force ships, viewed from deck of asylum-seekers’ boat, May 2015 (right); photos provided to Amnesty International by asylum-seekers: RNZ @RadioNewZealand via Facebook Oct. 28, 2015

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

offshore patrol vessel: Bidgee, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Australian_Customs.jpg

Amnesty International asylum seekers in immigration detention in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, after interception and turnback of their boat by Australian officials, August 2015 (left) and Australian border force ships, viewed from deck of asylum-seekers’ boat, May 2015 (right); photos provided to Amnesty International by asylum-seekers: RNZ @RadioNewZealand via Facebook Oct. 28, 2015, @ https://www.facebook.com/RadioNewZealand/posts/10153351353893731

For further information:

Amnesty International. 2015. By Hook or By Crook: Australia’s Abuse of Asylum-Seekers at Sea. London, England, U.K.: Amnesty International Ltd.
Available @ https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2488891/amnesty-international-australia-by-hook-or-by.pdf

AmnestyInternational @amnesty. 29 October 2015. "#Australia: Gov't officials paid off people-smugglers to turn back #AsylumSeekers." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/amnesty/status/659769320029974528

Grattan, Michelle. 27 September 2015. "Turnbull needs to add a dose of humanity into tough asylum policy." The Conversation > Politics & Society > View From the Hill.
Available @ https://theconversation.com/turnbull-needs-to-add-a-dose-of-humanity-into-tough-asylum-policy-48218

Rivett-Carnac, Mark. 29 October 2015. "Australia Paid People Smugglers to Tow Away Migrant Boats, Finds Amnesty Investigation." Time Inc. Network > World > Australia.
Available @ http://time.com/4092178/australia-people-smugglers-amnesty/

RNZ @RadioNewZealand. 28 October 28, 2015. "The Amnesty International report also claims Australia denied the asylum seekers medical treatment - and even withheld their own medications." Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/RadioNewZealand/posts/10153351353893731

RT. 31 October 2015. "Australia paid people smugglers to turn back asylum seeker boats - Amnesty Intl." YouTube.
Available @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwfEge9Fbz8