Night-transfer of Boat-Muslims at sea to Indonesia. |
The Australian Customs ship, ACV Triton, is attempting to get permission to enter Indonesian waters to offload 31 asylum seekers rescued overnight. If permission is granted it will be the second time since yesterday that Australian rescue authorities have returned asylum seekers to Indonesia.
The latest group was rescued from a broken boat early this morning. The ABC has been told that the Triton is now sitting off Timor waiting for permission to enter Indonesian territory. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) told its Indonesian equivalent Basarnas the "preference is for a transfer at sea" to Indonesian authorities.
Navy Sending Back Boat-Muslims After Burning Their Boats
Overnight the Australian Navy made a mid-ocean transfer of more than 40 asylum seekers to Basarnas. The 44 asylum seekers and two crew members were on a boat which issued a distress call 40 nautical miles off Java on Thursday morning.
Suyatno, the head of operations at the Jakarta office of Indonesia's rescue agency Basarnas, says his agency did not have the capability to reach the boat. The Australian Navy intercepted the vessel and then advised Basarnas that it would drop the asylum seekers off.
Muslim-boat just before Aus navy burning it at sea. |
Suyatno says he does not know why Australia did not take the asylum seekers to Christmas Island. One of the boat's crew members, Azam, says the boat was not broken, despite passengers calling Australia to be rescued.
He says the Navy set fire to the boat at sea. The passengers and crew have been returned to the Indonesian mainland. Asylum seekers only handed back to Indonesia once before.
Previous Occasion of Sending Back Boat-Muslims To Indonesia
On that occasion, last year, a boat sank near the mouth of the Sunda Strait off west Java. The asylum seekers said the Navy told them they would be taken to Darwin for medical treatment. But in the middle of the night, the Australian Navy forced the sick and sunburnt Afghan asylum seekers onto a Basarnas boat to be returned to Indonesia.
At the time the Labor government claimed that was an operational decision made by the Navy. On all other occasions when asylum seekers have been intercepted by Australian authorities, they have been taken to Christmas Island.
Analysis: Operation hints at new tougher approach
A sinking Muslim-boat scuttled by its own crew. |
But the public may never know if such protocols exist. The Government is sticking by its policy of not commenting on the operational details of any intercepts at sea under Operation Sovereign Borders.
The next opportunity to question the Immigration Minister and his Commander will be at their scheduled briefing, due next Monday. Boat was carrying asylum seekers from Iran, Iraq and Pakistan.
It is understood the passengers on the asylum vessel picked up by the Navy were from Iran, Iraq, and Pakistan. Crew member Azam has told ABC News that he was tricked into skippering the boat to Australia.
"I was offered work in a tourist
boat by a man called Adi. He recruited me in Lombok and and flew me to Jakarta
airport," he said. "Then I was taken to an unknown beach with a car
and met these passengers and the boat."
He said there was nothing wrong with the boat when the Australian Navy "intercepted" it, and the engine was working. It appears the asylum seekers called the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, hoping to get rescued and taken to Australia.
The transfer of the people back to west Java has caused a minor dispute with local immigration authorities, who did not want responsibility for the asylum seekers. Unless they have UNHCR asylum seeker or refugee papers they will be treated as illegal immigrants, but Indonesia's immigration detention network is over capacity.
The interception came as a diplomatic row
Aus FM Julie Bishop meeting Indonesia FM in NYC. |
The email said the foreign ministers discussed the Coalition's plans to turn back asylum boats and noted that Australia wanted to work on the issue "behind the scenes" and "quietly". It also warned Australia's plans to turn back asylum seeker boats could jeopardise trust and cooperation between the two countries.
That prompted former Liberal foreign minister Alexander Downer to use an appearance on ABC TV to issue a pointed rebuke to Dr Natalegawa, saying Indonesian crews are breaching Australian sovereignty and he should not be "taking shots" at the Coalition.
Indonesia now says briefing note sent by mistake
"Information [from that meeting] is now being quoted in several media outlets to create the impression of discord among Indonesian and Australian officials on matters of mutual interest," it said.
"The Indonesian government... stands ready to work with the Australian Government... to ensure the interests of both our people are fulfilled."
Tony Abbott says friction over boats is 'passing irritant'
Earlier today, Prime Minister Tony Abbott described tensions between the two countries over the Coalition's border protection policy as a "passing irritant". "The last thing I would ever want to do is anything that doesn't show the fullest possible respect for Indonesia's sovereignty," he said.
"We are already at this very
moment cooperating closely with the Indonesians... I don't believe that the
incoming government will do anything that will put that cooperation at risk. We
want to build on that."
(Blogger's Notes: These so-called Muslim refugees are so cunning they always call Australia Maritime Safety Authority once they are just out of Indonesian waters so that they can get a free and safe ride on Australian navy boats to Australia.
They are doing that just because of previous Rudd's and Gillard's Socialist Labor governments' Muslim-accommodating policies that flooded our beautiful secular-Australia with ugly Muslims who will eventually turn Jihardist terrorists terrorising Auatralia. Those good times for boat-Muslims are now truly over.
People of Australia have spoken and Tony Abbott's conservative Liberal government has been given the overwhelming mandate to treat these boat-Muslims as trouble-making vermin what they really are.)
Tony Abbott the PM. |
They are doing that just because of previous Rudd's and Gillard's Socialist Labor governments' Muslim-accommodating policies that flooded our beautiful secular-Australia with ugly Muslims who will eventually turn Jihardist terrorists terrorising Auatralia. Those good times for boat-Muslims are now truly over.
People of Australia have spoken and Tony Abbott's conservative Liberal government has been given the overwhelming mandate to treat these boat-Muslims as trouble-making vermin what they really are.)
Australian Custom Ship ACV Triton at sea. |
Related posts at following links:
Islamic Australia: No White Cunts and Christians Allowed
Australia Welcomes Boat-Muslims with $220 Weekly-dole
Julia Gillard's Labor Government Letting Boat-People Rape in Sydney