Officials accused of ‘bribing’ smugglers

SYDNEY — Australian spies and police are being accused of paying off people-smuggling rings for years as part of a hard-line approach to illegal immigration.

The alleged payments — including the equivalent of $35,000 to smugglers last month to turn back to Indonesia a boatload of 65 migrants — have been labelled “state bribery” by the Indonesian government, and legal experts have said Australian officials could be charged with human trafficking.

Tony Abbott, Australia’s prime minister, has refused to deny that Australia made the payments, saying he would not comment on “operational details.”

Reports have emerged that the intelligence services have been making such payments for years, including during the term of the previous Labor government.

Australia’s Fairfax Media cited sources who claimed “the practice of intelligence agency officials paying members of peoplesmuggling networks, including boat owners and crews, goes back to about 2010 under the then (Kevin) Rudd government.”

“Instances include paying members of syndicates for information about the operations of the syndicate, or to dissuade them from launching boats,” it reported.

Gen Endang Sunjaya, an Indonesian police chief investigating the incident last month, said the six crew members aboard the boat had sworn under oath they received a total of $35,000 from an Australian official to return to Indonesia. He said the official was not in uniform and went back and forth between Australian navy and customs ships.

“We believe the payments happened,” Gen Endang said. “They all said the same thing. They were paid by Australian officials to return to Indonesia. ... If it happened in Indonesia it would constitute a bribe.”

The alleged payments were witnessed by several of the asylumseekers, who were from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Burma.