A boatload of money

“It is said the passengers paid up to US$15,000 each. If that were true then the people smugglers could have made nearly $4 million. They probably got a great deal less than that, but still a lot of money by local standards. Enough to get a boat and buy a crew that would face jail in Indonesia, but not in Australia.”
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By Terry Lacey
Exclusive to Sri Lanka Guardian

(October 21. Jakarta, Sri Lanka Guardian) The saga of the 255 Sri Lankans stuck on a boat in the port of Merak, Indonesia involves at least five countries: Sri Lanka where they came from, Australia where they said they were going, and Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia where the people smugglers coordinated logistics so passengers could join the boat by air and road.

These boat people did not sail from Sri Lanka, but reportedly from Malaysia and then island-hopped across Indonesia.

I deduce that when the boats´s captain neared Krakatoa in the Sunda Strait, he knew that his own little volcano had already blown up in his face and it was time to call it a day.

Was there any chance they were ever going to get to Christmas Island, only 500 kilometers south of Jakarta ? I conclude not. This was all about it being better to travel hopefully than to arrive, and about making a great deal of money.

It is said the passengers paid up to US$15,000 each. If that were true then the people smugglers could have made nearly $4 million. They probably got a great deal less than that, but still a lot of money by local standards. Enough to get a boat and buy a crew that would face jail in Indonesia, but not in Australia.

Under the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, a refugee is a person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted on account of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of their nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail him/herself of the protection of that country.

The concept of a refugee was expanded by the Convention's 1967 Protocol and by regional conventions to include persons who had fled war or other violence in their home country. However the war in Sri Lanka is ended and such conventions may not apply to Sri Lanka. Moreover Indonesia is not a signatory to the UN Convention, although Australia is.

It is reported that Indonesia is already holding 2,000 would-be refugees while 1,600 have got to Australia this year. Others are trying from Afghanistan and Pakistan or could come from ASEAN conflict zones in Myanmar, southern Philippines and southern Thailand.
ASEAN countries may become destinations or transit points and targets for people smuggling including Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei and some of the Greater Mekong countries including Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

Dino Patti Djalal, an Indonesian presidential spokesman said this is best treated as a regional problem (with ASEAN, Australia and New Zealand). (The Jakarta Post 21.10.09).

Anita Restu, an Indonesian spokesperson for UNHCR, said the agency is ready to help “ But we need the government´s approval before we can take action.”

When UNHCR establishes, in cooperation with national authorities, genuine claims to refugee and asylum status, for example reflecting conditions in the aftermath of civil war in Sri Lanka, then Indonesia and other countries involved should act considerately and quickly, and share the burden, including the richer neighbors in Australia and New Zealand.

ASEAN should not simply be used as a defensive wall against a fair share of such burden-sharing despite some racism or anti-foreigner sentiments in these richer Western countries.

But when the hospitality of ASEAN is exploited by illegal economic migrants they should be sent back to their nation of origin, or perhaps offered the chance to help develop poorer areas of Indonesia (or other ASEAN countries) on the same terms as local people.

There should be no favors to queue jumpers who can try their luck at legal migration the same as everyone else. Nor the privilege or choosing superior destinations when local ASEAN people are working hard to get themselves out of poverty and underdevelopment.

And all the countries concerned should hunt down the organized criminals involved before human trafficking of illegal migrants in ASEAN becomes more generalized and a greater threat to the maritime safety and security of the region, and to their hapless victims.

(Terry Lacey is a development economist who writes from Jakarta on modernization in the Muslim world, investment and trade relations with the EU and Islamic banking.)

-Sri Lanka Guardian