Australia paid people smugglers to change route: Amnesty
Amnesty International says it has evidence indicating that Australia paid human smugglers to turn back boats carrying asylum seekers, calling for an investigation into the issue.
In a report released on Wednesday, the London-based rights group said officials working as part of Operation Sovereign Borders, a border protection operation led by the Australian Defense Force, handed over USD 32,000 (£20,900) to six crew members to take a boatload of New Zealand-bound asylum seekers back to Indonesia in May this year.
The report, titled “By hook or by crook,” was based on witness testimonies as well as images and video footage taken by the asylum seekers.
The report added that the Australian officials’ intervention in the May incident endangered the lives of refugees by transferring them to different boats that did not have enough fuel.
“Australia has, for months, denied that it paid for people smuggling, but our report provides detailed evidence pointing to a very different set of events,” said Anna Shea, a refugee researcher at Amnesty International.
The rights group also found evidence suggesting a second payment to crew in another incident in July 2015, based on testimonies from 15 asylum seekers.
“All of the available evidence points to Australian officials having committed a transnational crime by, in effect, directing a people-smuggling operation…. People-smuggling is a crime usually associated with private individuals, not governments – but here we have strong evidence that Australian officials are not just involved, but directing operations,” Shea added.
Amnesty International further called for a probe into “allegations of criminal and unlawful acts” committed by Australian officials concerning their treatment of asylum seekers.
The report comes as the Australian government has been under fire in recent years both at home and abroad for its strict immigration policies and treatment of refugees, among them detaining asylum seekers in offshore facilities in inhumane conditions.
Most of the refugees who risk their lives abroad are reportedly fleeing conflict-hit zones in Africa and the Middle East, particularly Syria.
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