Fishermen jailed for smuggling illegals

Fishermen jailed for smuggling illegals

PERTH, Australia (AFP): Another group of Indonesian fishermen were jailed by an Australian court Tuesday under tough new laws designed to discourage human-trafficking.

The captain of a small ferry boat, Usman Kadir, 27, and two crew members, Afit Umbu, 19, and Erasmus Ur, 29, pleaded guilty in the Broome magistrate's court, in the far north of Western Australia state, to bringing three non-citizens into Australia last month.

Usman was sentenced by magistrate Anton Bloemen to two years' jail -- the maximum penalty for the offense when the case is heard by a magistrate. Afit and Erasmus were imprisoned for 20 months.

In a departure from common practice, the magistrate ordered the men to serve the full term behind bars without being eligible for parole.

Under the Australia's toughened laws, offenders can be jailed for up to two years in a magistrate's court and up to 10 years in higher court.

The three sentenced Tuesday attempted to land three boat people at Ashmore Reef, 600 kilometers north of Broome, last month.

Tuesday's sentences were longer than penalties imposed on five Indonesian fishermen in Darwin on Monday.

The five were sentenced to two years' jail each. Two of the five had brought 24 illegal immigrants to Ashmore Reef on Aug. 30. The other three had brought 12 people to the reef four days earlier.