Indonesia nabs Lankan ringleaders for people smuggling
Duo had forged passports, cash and credit cards:
INDONESIA: Two Sri Lankans have been arrested in the
Indonesian capital for allegedly running a people smuggling operation to
Australia, a senior police officer said yesterday.
The pair are suspected of organising a foiled operation earlier this
year when the Australian navy intercepted a boat load of 83 Sri Lankans
in its northern waters en route from Indonesia, the officer said.
“On them we found two counterfeit passports, 520 million rupiah
(58,000 dollars) and 1,003 dollars in cash and 234 credit cards,”
transnational security senior commissioner Bachtiar Hasanuddin
Tambunanhe said, without explaining who owned the credit cards.
The pair are in detention after their May 7 arrest at a house in
Jakarta.
Tambunan said the pair had received between 100 to 150 million rupiah
from each of the 83 Sri Lankans for the February attempt to reach
Australia.
He said the route was from Jakarta to the tip of southern Sumatra
island where they boarded a wooden boat operated by two Indonesians,
which headed south before being intercepted off Australia’s Christmas
Island.
Australia has transferred the asylum seekers to the Pacific island of
Nauru, in an extension of the Government’s controversial “Pacific
Solution” for unwanted migrants.
Indonesia has said the group, who were sent to a detention centre on
Nauru, would be sent back to Sri Lanka if Australia decided to return
them to Indonesia.
Jakarta, Tuesday, AFP |