People Smuggling: Indonesians Jailed in Australia...

People smuggling is a crime, perhaps a heinous crime. It is one that does not pay, particularly if you get caught in Australian waters. Australia has pretty serious consequences for those that are caught and successfully prosecuted. The minimum mandatory sentence for those convicted of people smuggling is five years. However, non-parole periods can be set, and this seems to be in the range of three years.

Four Indonesians have learned the seriousness of the consequences the hard way and have been sentenced to five years in prison. The Queensland Supreme Court in Brisbane has found the men were responsible for the trips of two boatloads of Afghanis, Kurds and Iranians to Australia. But, the court was clear that the men were not the orgainsers of the trips, rather they were recruited by others to do their dirty work.

Each of the passengers paid somewhere between AUD 5000 and AUD 15000 for their passage. The Indonesians, Ferry Irawan and Sali were caught off the Ashmore Reef and Anton Tambunan and Joko Sampurno were caught off Christmas Island on two separate boats. The Indonesians were paid about IDR 5 million for the voyages.

There are some 70 others awaiting their turn to make their way through the Australian court system for people smuggling offenses. So, it would seem that there will be plenty of others looking at the five-year minimum mandatory sentence.

The question that arises from all this is are minimum mandatory sentences enough to thwart people smugglers and stop the crime? Probably not. Let's face it, when there is an offer of 3, 4, 5 or 50 times what you would normally earn in a month, then it is fair to say that there will be plenty of poor and illiterate Indonesian fisherman that will not think twice about looking a "gift horse" in the mouth. Perhaps the answer is not the poor fisherman getting caught. Perhaps the answer is to work harder at identifying and arresting the core organisers of these people smuggling operations.

Then again, perhaps the answer is getting those countries were the people being smuggled transit to Australia to take the crime seriously enough to draft and enact legislation that puts in place significant penalties that are likely to deter individuals from becoming involved in people smuggling operations.

Hmmm...

Hospital Forces Mother to Sell Child...Indonesia

Are you kidding me?

This is a crime, is it not? By my reckoning the Child Protection Law (No. 23 of 2002) would prohibit the buying and selling of children for any purpose. The idea of buying a child would also be in violation of the provisions of Law No. 21 of 2007 on Human Trafficking.

A hospital has forced a mother of twins to sell one of the twins to a hospital employee in order for her to pay her bills. This is just so wrong on so many levels. The fact that the hospital condones this as a method of paying patient medical expenses is criminal. All those involved must be punished to the fullest extent permissible under the applicable law. If there is no laws that make this kind of action criminally punishable, then parliament needs to focus on this issue immediately and put a legal framework in place that makes it impossible for hospitals and hospital staff to take advantage of, and exploit, the poor in this way.

I find myself shaking my head and thinking, why do seemingly educated people working in hospitals think that this is OK?

Let's "Save the Children"

People Smuggling -- Indonesia...

The Cobra seems destined for jail. Ali Cobra who also goes by the aliases Ali Kobra, Labasa Ali, Ali Basa, and Sultan Ali has been characterized as one of the main men of the people smuggling scene in Indonesia. Ali Cobra was arrested back in May as part of a joint Indonesian and Australian operation. The charges are not related to the people smuggling activities as the laws are not available in Indonesia.

The prosecutors trying the case in the Kupang District Court have asked for a four year prison sentence and a IDR 15 million fine. Both of these numbers seem a little on the light side considering the crimes committed. However, when considered in light of the charges leveled at the Cobra, then they are within the expected scope. This is because the charges relate to assisting in the mass break out of asylum seekers from a detention center in West Timor and then facilitating them onto a boat headed for Australia.

The boat eventually sank and nine asylum seekers drowned.

Interestingly, Cobra has not employed a lawyer. He has asked the court for leniency when it sentences him on 9 September 2009 as he has a wife and children living in Sulawesi who need him.