Smuggler among asylum seekers - Australia
A convicted people smuggler has been found among a boat-load of Sri
Lankan asylum seekers holed up on a wooden vessel in Indonesia,
Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said yesterday.
The revelation came after Australian authorities said a new boat
carrying suspected asylum seekers had been picked up heading towards
Australia, the third such vessel de
tected in as many days.
The convicted smuggler, Abraham Lauhenaspessy, known as “Captain
Bram”, was arrested after being found on the boat picked up by
Indonesian authorities last week as it carried 255 Tamil asylum seekers
towards Australia, Smith said.
“Abraham ... has been taken into custody by Indonesian authorities,”
he told Australian public radio hours before travelling to Jakarta with
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd for a visit expected to include talks on
people smuggling.
“He is, of course, someone who has previously been convicted of
people smuggling offences and well known to Australian and Indonesian
authorities,” he said.
Fairfax newspapers alleged that “Captain Bram” had brought more than
1,500 asylum seekers to Australia since he emerged as a key organiser of
Indonesia’s people-smuggling operations in 1999.
A spokesman for the Sri Lankan asylum seekers, who last week said
they had launched a hunger strike after refusing to disembark their
vessel moored in an Indonesian port, confirmed Captain Bram was on
board.
The spokesman, known as Alex, claimed the vessel had been intercepted
after Captain Bram had turned the boat back after failing to make a
rendezvous with a smaller vessel that would have returned him to
Indonesia.
He insisted on turning everyone back to avoid the risk of being
sentenced to up to 20 years in jail as a people smuggler if he had been
arrested by Australian authorities.
AFP |