Vietamese migrants found near Flores<\/p>\n
Joanne Collins, Reuters, Bali<\/p>\n
A boat carrying more than 40 Vietnamese migrants heading for
\nAustralia has been found near the eastern Indonesian island of
\nFlores, Australian and Indonesian officials said on Wednesday.
\nPeople smuggling and illegal migrants have been thorny issues for
\nCanberra and Jakarta in the past two years, but Australian
\nForeign Minister Alexander Downer said Australia was \"very happy\"
\nwith the way Indonesia had handled the boat matter.
\n\"We understand that the boat has come to an island in the Flores
\nregion and that Indonesian authorities and the International
\nOrganisation for Migration (IOM) are going to meet up with the
\npeople from the boat, and the IOM and the Indonesians will
\nprocess them in the appropriate way,\" Downer told reporters on
\nthe sidelines of a regional people smuggling conference on the
\nresort island of Bali.
\nIndonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said he had heard the
\nboat had been located but did not have details.
\n\"Yes, I heard this unofficially, but to us the flows of these
\nboat people from Vietnam is an anomaly,\" Wirajuda told a news
\nconference at the end of the two-day conference.
\nIndonesia is a favoured staging post for illegal migrants,
\nespecially from the Middle East, but Wirajuda said there had not
\nbeen any new flows of illegal migrants to the archipelago since
\nlast year's people smuggling conference in February.
\nThe boat-load of Vietnamese migrants near Flores is one of two
\nlocated in Indonesian waters in the past two weeks. The other,
\nwith 31 migrants on board, was found last week on a tiny
\nIndonesian island near Singapore.
\nAustralian Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock described those on
\nboard as \"opportunistic\" voyagers.
\n\"What we know is that the two vessels involved have not been
\norganised people smuggling or trafficking,\" Ruddock said, adding
\nthe boat found near Flores was not fit for further travel.
\nAsked whether finding the boat resulted from Indonesian
\nauthorities working with the Australian police, Downer said: \"We
\ndon't have a formal written agreement, no, but we have obviously
\nmade contact with the Indonesians some time ago about these boats
\nand, as we explained, we want to handle this in a low-key way and
\nwe are very happy with the way the Indonesians have handled it.\"<\/p>\n
REUTERS<\/p>\n
GetRTR 3.00 -- APR 30, 2003 14:14:16<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/vietamese-migrants-found-near-flores-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }