Lisa Hiariej
Almost all Australians don’t have any sympathy for those perceived as people smugglers. I do not blame Australians for that because they don’t know the real story about why they end up in Australian Waters. I believe that Australian people only know from the media or hear from radio about what the journalists write and say.
The real story of them is that they are being lied to by the Mr Bigs, the organisers, who have little sense of responsibility towards them. These people took the money and promised to give what is a small payment to those who would skipper, cook and deckhand the boats, but they never ever received the money. All of them come from poor families so I appeal to the Australian government to have compassion and understanding as to why the people smugglers they gaol are only the poor villagers and not the ‘’ big masterminds’’ who manage the racket.
The bosses go to the villages of near-destitute Indonesians offering what appears huge amounts of money for them to crew a boat somewhere. Usually they are told they will be required to go fishing for a few days or take a tourist for fishing or cargo wood to another island. Then, when they have travelled for a couple of days, under escort by the organisers via GPS, they are abandoned and just told to continue in a certain direction. They have no idea as to where they are actually headed, nor that they are very likely to be arrested when they reach land. With no education or knowledge of a world outside their small villages, no English and separated from their families, their plight is indeed sad.
They feel they have deserted their families who cannot understand, when eventually given the news, why their men and children are in gaol in Australia when they were only going fishing. Also, their families are now totally destitute, without the husband or father to go and gather food for them. They live in incredibly poor housing conditions. Those who had jobs have lost them because they have been incarcerated in Australia. The masterminds find easy targets when men and children face the circumstances of little to eat and no prospects of a better life. Fathers cannot afford to send their children to school so the inter-generational cycle of poor education continues.
One of the saddest stories of ‘’people smugglers’’ is that of “Kancil’s", an adult male. I spoke with Kancil on 13 May 2012, some time after his return to his home. He was very happy to be back with his family and related details about why he agreed to crew a boat to go fishing and his subsequent arrest and detention in Australia. Kancil comes from a poor suburb in Jakarta where he and his family live in extremely poor conditions. After he returned from Australia, he relocated his family, moving home, because he was scared of the 'big boss', as he worried if this character would harm his family or himself. Almost all adult smugglers after they are released from Australian gaols and are sent back to Indonesia are intimidated and scared of crossing paths with their former "bosses".
Kancil was lured into crewing a boat when he was asked to go fishing for some days. For that he was to receive more money than he had ever had a chance to earn previously. The boat was met at Christmas Island by the Australian Navy and Kancil was one of those arrested. His boss, Mr Gombal, left him after he sighted Christmas Island and turned back to Indonesia in a different boat.
Kancil spent some time in Darwin detention during in which time various weekly meetings took place between lawyers, police, and Indonesian and Immigration officials. Kancil and other ‘’ people smugglers’’ asked the lawyers, ‘’Why only us go to gaol and not the people who bring them to Australia?” The lawyers asked the police to answer the question for all ‘’people smugglers’’ but the police told the lawyers to answer this. At every meeting the same question was asked but both the lawyers and police ignored the question.
As the lawyers were not prepared to take instruction because of the language problem and not enough information about those in detention was known to those who came to visit them, they were told they should plead guilty and they would receive a 25% reduction in their sentences. Many of them agreed but their sentences were not reduced. Kancil refused to plead guilty and was sent to Silverwater goal before being moved to Long Bay gaol in March 2011. Because it was thought it would take 8-9 months for the ‘’people smugglers’’ to be processed by Australian law, it was decided they should be sent to gaol in the meantime.
While he was in Silverwater gaol in Sydney he met a lawyer through Face book. A few months later he saw two Australian lawyers. He told them he would never admit guilty and put his case in their hands. Six passengers who had been on the boat Kancil helped to crew were witnesses at his trial. Only one would have helped his case and Kancil told the Court that he was told what to do whilst sailing the boat and now in court the witnesses were giving him a hard time so he would go to gaol.
Photos taken and provided by me of the extremely poor living conditions, showing his house and the surroundings, were of great assistance in Kancil’s case and he was FOUND NOT GUILTY. He was at last free after spending 1 year and 8 months in an Australian gaol. He was free to leave a foreign country and see his family once again.
On 31 January 2012, before completion of Kancil’s trial in Australia I interviewed his wife in their home. They had to move from their previous home because their house was completely broken and the owner would not fix anything. Their present house is smaller and they live with their two children (a boy aged 9 and a girl aged 5) in a really poor area. The boy was going to school but since his father disappeared he mostly stays home because he has no pocket money to take to school and his friends often asked him where is your father. The girl was in Kindergarten. Because of such poverty this is the reason many villagers are uneducated, naive, and therefore easy prey for the big men behind the people smuggling. When I interviewed Kancil’s wife, she was working as a labourer in a wood factory. She had to lift heavy wood and put it in machines - a dangerous job and not a good place for women to work. However, with her husband away she needed money to support herself and the children. She had to bribe the supervisor at the factory to get the job and worked two shifts (7am – 6pm)
(7pm – 6am) for just $A2.40 per day.
She worked 6 days per week and was able to exist by eating only twice a day. She received dinner at the factory when on night shift but on morning shift she had to take own lunch. She walked to the factory, which took 40 minutes each way. To take the bus would have meant they would not have money for food. Friends looked after the children while she was at work. All of her pay went on food for the children. She had to first credit the food at the market and then pay them back on Saturday or Sunday after her salary was paid. Before Kancil went to Australia he worked as a driver to deliver fish to places. He received about $A2 per day. Kancil’s wife told the children their father was working in his father’s village so they did not know he was in gaol in Australia.
One day in 2010 Kancil brought home $A350 and gave it to his wife. He told her he had to go fishing for three days. She was surprised as he had never had big money before, but she used the money to live day to day with her children. If she had known what was to happen to her husband she would have tried to stop him and taken the money back to whoever had paid him. She began to worry about her husband after she had not seen him for 3 days but it was 6 months before she received a phone call from the Indonesian Embassy in Canberra to tell her that her husband was in gaol in Australia. When the Embassy told her he had been arrested for people smuggling she said he had only gone fishing for 3 days.
Now that he is free and back in Indonesia, Kancil feels he should try and help those still in gaol, particularly the young boys. Recently he received a phone call from a friend still in Australia who told him that in Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne they were all confused because no-one had been sent back to Indonesia yet. One of the minors Kancil knows pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 3 years’ gaol and is now in Muswellbrook gaol. He was tired because the case took a long time and too many questions, so he decided to plead guilty. He was scared to give his correct details to the police. His family (sister, brother and grandmother) live near the boss’s house. He is an orphan as his parents passed away long ago. He and his 2 siblings live with his grandmother and he needs to keep them safe. Before he ended up in Australia he was the only one working for them. Now no-one can help his family in the village where they live.
Kancil received information from a friend that they would be picked up in Australia by the bosses. They were told everything would be sorted out within 2 months. All the adult people smugglers complained that the bosses did not pay them. So their families were left with no-one to help them and their children could not go to school because their fathers and husbands are in Australian gaols. The boat people are upset because they took the passengers and they are in gaol while the passengers are set free in Australia. They were also upset because the excuse the passengers used to get into the country was that their country is in a mess.
Kancil has the names of quite a few who were told by their lawyer to admit guilty so they could get a 25% reduction in sentence, but the reality is they got 3 years in gaol. Two Mr X in Broken Hill gaol for 3 years, one in Muswellbrook for 3 years and another one in Cessnock for 3 years. All these gaols are in the State of New South Wales.
* Not his real name
Lisa Hiariej is an Indonesian and Australian lawyer
Email: lisa.hiariej@rocketmail.com
Mob : +62 8787 386 3320
Mob : +61 420410 418