DIBP - Place of origin of Indonesian minors charged with people smuggling

The Australian Lawyers Alliance applied to the Department of Immigration and Border Protection for the release of information of the 181 Indonesian minors identified as individuals of concern by the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) in its An age of uncertainty inquiry into the treatment of individuals suspected of people smuggling offences who say that they are children, at Appendix 2.

The documents released to us can be viewed on the Department of Immigration and Border Protection's FOI Disclosure Log here. (Please note: 183 pages).

About the issue

In its An age of uncertainty inquiry, the AHRC identified that children were being charged as adults for people smuggling offences, often via the utilisation of now-defunct wrist X-ray age determination procedure. Individuals were subsequently detained alongside adults in maximum security prisons, in breach of Article 37(c) of the Convention of the Rights of the Child. The AHRC identified that potentially 181 individuals may have been affected.

The Australian Lawyers Alliance sought the release of place of origin (birth) and most recent address of all 181 individuals.

177 folios were released to us. Of these, 175 had discernable data and and only 158 of these folios provided a place of birth.

Findings

Of the 158 cases that provided a place of birth, all but one of these people were from Indonesia, with the other individual being from Urazagan, Afghanistan. Of the 157 cases whose birth place was from within Indonesia, we determined that they came from the following regions:

• The majority of people (57.5%) originated from Nusa Tenggara Timur (East Nusa Tenggara), the closest Indonesian province to Australia.
• Of the 90 people born Nusa Tengarra Timur, 45 of these were born on the island of Rote.
• Areas included in the ‘other’ category are Nusa Tengarra Barat, Maluku, Papua, Kalimantan, Riau Islands and Sumatra.
• Further specific data was released to us regarding the villages from which people originated, meaning that we were able to further identify the place of origin from which people were being recruited into people smuggling.

In making this request under freedom of information laws, it became apparent that the data we sought was confined to individual client's files only.

It appeared that no systemic record appeared to be kept by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection regarding the place of origin of people charged with people smuggling.

Therefore, it appears that our records regarding place of origin are unique, with a lack of attention placed on the areas from which people originate, and the causative factors that may have led them to become involved in people smuggling in the first place.

In 2010, the International Organisation for Migration was commissioned by Australia to assess villages in Indonesia that could be targeted for anti-people smuggling education activities.

The International Organisation of Migration noted two villages in West Timor to be targeted for anti-people smuggling education activities. One of these was a seaweed farming village which experienced significant reductions in production in the years following the Montara oil spill.

If Australian records had been sufficient at that time regarding place of origin, such information would have been easy to determine, and subsequently utilised for education activities.

Potential relevance to the Montara oil spill

This freedom of information request followed fieldwork in Indonesia where communities said that there had been a growth in people smuggling in the area following the Montara oil spill and the economic devastation experienced in communities.

It was impossible to obtain from the data provided to us the dates on which the individuals originating from the different stated provinces were apprehended. However, the AHRC inquiry report provides that:

• 14 people arrived before the commencement of the spill, before 21 August 2009;
• 14 people arrived during the course of the spill, between 21 August 2009 – 3 November 2009; and
• 147 people arrived after the spill, after 3 November 2009 – 2011; with
  • 22 people arriving after 3 November 2009 until the end of the year;
  • 78 people arriving in the year 2010; and
  • 52 people arriving in the year 2011.

Appendix 2 to the Australian Human Rights Commission's report An age of uncertainty can be accessed here.