Lankans suspect in human smuggling to Australia

The Australian and Indonesian authorities are investigating a large scale human smuggling racket in both countries reportedly run by Sri Lankans who have been involved in illegally smuggling people into Australia via Indonesia.

The racket which has been going on for sometime came into the limelight when two Sri Lankans were arrested in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta for allegedly running a people smuggling operation to Australia.

The two men were suspected of organising the operation earlier this year when the Australian Navy intercepted in its northern waters, a boat load of 83 Sri Lankans coming from Indonesia.

The Indonesian police had nabbed the two on vital information provided by the Australian police who arrested and detained several Sri Lankans entering their country illegally using a small boat.

The two had revealed there were several others in Australia and Indonesia who had been assisting this international operation.
They had revealed that most of the boats had been rented out by Sri Lankan fishermen who bring the illegal immigrants to Indonesia fron where they were later sent to Australia.

In the wake of the pair being arrested on May 7 at a house in Jakarta they had revealed that most of the kingpins in the operation had gone into hiding. They said some Australian officials who were aware of their operations had been bribed. The Indonesian Police recovered two counterfeit passports, 520 million rupiah (US $ 58,000), $1,003 in cash and 234 credit cards.

A Jakarta police spokesperson Bachtiar Hasanuddin told The Sunday Times over the telephone that nvestigations are continuing and that the Indonesian police are on a massive hunt to arrest six other Sri Lankans who have been reportedly involved in the racket.

“We are also co-ordinating with the Australian authorities to find more information on the whole operation. We are also trying to ascertain who owned the credit cards,” he said.

Police investigations in Jakarta had revealed that the two men arrested received100 to 150 million rupiah from each of the 83 Sri Lankans who attempted to reach Australia.

The 83 Sri Lankans were travelling from Jakarta to the southern tip of Sumatra where they boarded a wooden boat operated by two Indonesians. The boat headed south before being intercepted off Christmas Island.

Indonesian authorities said the group detained on Nauru, would be sent back to Sri Lanka if Australia decided to return them to Indonesia.