Vietamese migrants found near Flores

Vietamese migrants found near Flores

Joanne Collins, Reuters, Bali

A boat carrying more than 40 Vietnamese migrants heading for
Australia has been found near the eastern Indonesian island of
Flores, Australian and Indonesian officials said on Wednesday.
People smuggling and illegal migrants have been thorny issues for
Canberra and Jakarta in the past two years, but Australian
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Australia was "very happy"
with the way Indonesia had handled the boat matter.
"We understand that the boat has come to an island in the Flores
region and that Indonesian authorities and the International
Organisation for Migration (IOM) are going to meet up with the
people from the boat, and the IOM and the Indonesians will
process them in the appropriate way," Downer told reporters on
the sidelines of a regional people smuggling conference on the
resort island of Bali.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said he had heard the
boat had been located but did not have details.
"Yes, I heard this unofficially, but to us the flows of these
boat people from Vietnam is an anomaly," Wirajuda told a news
conference at the end of the two-day conference.
Indonesia is a favoured staging post for illegal migrants,
especially from the Middle East, but Wirajuda said there had not
been any new flows of illegal migrants to the archipelago since
last year's people smuggling conference in February.
The boat-load of Vietnamese migrants near Flores is one of two
located in Indonesian waters in the past two weeks. The other,
with 31 migrants on board, was found last week on a tiny
Indonesian island near Singapore.
Australian Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock described those on
board as "opportunistic" voyagers.
"What we know is that the two vessels involved have not been
organised people smuggling or trafficking," Ruddock said, adding
the boat found near Flores was not fit for further travel.
Asked whether finding the boat resulted from Indonesian
authorities working with the Australian police, Downer said: "We
don't have a formal written agreement, no, but we have obviously
made contact with the Indonesians some time ago about these boats
and, as we explained, we want to handle this in a low-key way and
we are very happy with the way the Indonesians have handled it."

REUTERS

GetRTR 3.00 -- APR 30, 2003 14:14:16