June 17, 2024
Nine Chinese citizens attempting to reach Australia have been rescued by fishermen off southern Java and detained after they claimed they were pushed back into Indonesian waters by the Australian Border Force.
The nine, along with three Indonesian crew members, were taken to the western port town of Pelabuhan Ratu, telling local authorities they had been turned back after being held at sea by an Australian naval vessel for five days.
They told Indonesian police their wooden boat had become disabled and was drifting about 65km off Java, when they were rescued by fishermen and taken to Pelabuhan Ratu which has long been a departure point for illegal smuggling vessels on Saturday afternoon.
The group's detention is the fourth known attempt by groups of Chinese nationals to break through to Australia this year, having been told by smugglers that asylum awaits them should they make landfall.
A spokesman for the Australian Border Force said it would not comment on operational matters.
Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said that yet another attempt by smugglers to breach the country's borders showed the government's "failure" to properly monitor and secure it.
"People-smugglers are continuing to test Australia's borders because of the Albanese government's failure to deliver adequate maritime patrol data and aerial surveillance hours," the senator said.
"Unless Labor shows strength and restores Operation Sovereign Borders, the boats will continue to come, and some will break through all the way to the Australian mainland again." The Indonesian crew members have given local authorities differing statements.
One said they had been "captured by the Australian navy" which transferred them to a new "lifeboat" and pushed them back towards Indonesia, while another claimed the navy had sent them back in their original boat.
An Indonesian intelligence source also questioned whether the men had actually been rescued by local fishermen or retrieved by members of the smuggling network, who were trying to conceal their involvement.
The Chinese citizens and the smugglers continue to be interrogated in Pelabuhan Ratu.
Their detention marks an increase in attempts by small groups of mainland Chinese who in the past have been more likely to fly in and claim asylum to reach Australia by boat.
A group of 10 Chinese reached the mainland in early April; a group of six Chinese and six smugglers was intercepted by Indonesian authorities in Kupang while trying to make for Australia, also in April; and Indonesian media reported that in late May two Chinese nationals almost made land near Darwin when they were put on a new boat and sent back to Indonesia after their original vessel was burned at sea.
In February, a boat carrying 39 Pakistani and Bangladeshi men reached the mainland north of Broome.
They, along with the Chinese nationals who reached the mainland, have been transferred to Nauru.
