YASMIN ALI'S JOURNEY

Too young – or too unimportant?                         

Yasmin Ali is now home in Flores telling family and friends about his extraordinary experiences in Perth, the booming capital of Western Australia, and Albany a small holiday town on the State’s south coast.

Unfortunately the teenager’s accounts, garnered over two years, aren’t littered with tales of fun on sun-soaked beaches or happy times in a prosperous society that respects human rights.  Instead his tales are about life in two jails.

For back in 2009 Yasmin, then 13, was arrested when the Indonesian fishing boat he was helping crew arrived at Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean.  It was laden with 55 Middle Eastern asylum seekers.

Under Australian law Yasmin faced a mandatory five-year jail sentence unless he could prove that he was under 18.  He couldn’t.  Indonesian kids picked up by the people smuggling mafia in Jakarta to work as deckhands don’t carry passports and birth records.

Even if they did have wallets stuffed with certificates the Australian Federal Police wouldn’t accept them as valid, assuming that all Indonesian documents are false unless proved otherwise.

Instead the police X-rayed Yasmin’s wrists using an 80-year old technique that links bone-growth rate to age.  The scans are measured against an atlas of white middle class children from the US.

Medical experts have been rubbishing the system as inaccurate and inappropriate for Asians.  But the AFP refused to change its policy till late last year when a court in Queensland threw out charges because it believed the defendants were underage.

By then around 24 kids like Yasmin were already sharing space with violent criminals and paedophiles.

A visitor to the Albany jail on other business noticed Yasmin and was convinced he looked too young to be banged up in an adult prison. 

He raised his concerns with Ross Taylor, the founder of the Perth NGO Indonesia Institute and a former WA Trade Commissioner in Jakarta.  He started speaking up in the media about the boat kids, claiming they were the unwitting dupes of ruthless criminals and should be repatriated, not prosecuted.

Sadly his campaign wasn’t greeted with widespread applause.  There’s no sympathy for people smugglers in Australia; former Foreign Affairs minister Kevin Rudd labelled them the ‘scum of the earth’.  Few in the public were prepared to differentiate between the godfathers in Jakarta and deckhands in Nusa Tenggara.

There’s been little understanding of the realities of Indonesian village life where poor fishermen are prepared to take great risks for the promise of high wages and a short voyage.  They aren’t told the trips are one way, the journey is hazardous and the cops are waiting for survivors.

Australian lawyers and reporters sought proof that boys like Yasmin were minors.  However school records, letters by village officials and statements by relatives all failed the AFP’s test of verifiable documentation. 

Nonetheless Mr Taylor, journalists and others kept hammering at the Australian government and public opinion. Indonesian diplomats in Australia eventually started trying to obtain convincing paperwork.

At last their efforts have yielded some success.  Federal Attorney General Nicola Roxon released Yasmin and two other children.  They were immediately deported last Friday.  (18 May)  Age verification is now the responsibility of Immigration, not the AFP.

A Federal Parliamentary inquiry into underage prisoners initiated by the Greens is underway, and there’s talk among human rights lawyers about the children suing the Government for wrongful imprisonment.

Many factors complicate the issue.  The lack of an efficient and universal system of recording births and issuing certificates that can be checked against a centralised registry in Indonesia doesn’t help.

Nor does the poor education of village boys who are ignorant of international law and politics and foreign legal systems so have to rely on others for advice. Although Yasmin had free legal aid he pleaded guilty.

Australian judges slamming the cell doors shut say tough sentences are deterrent, sending clear messages to others. 

They don’t.  If they did the boats would stop coming.  So far this year 35 Indonesian vessels carrying more than 2,500 asylum seekers have been caught in Australian waters

Some deckhands don’t know their age or get confused under questioning. It’s alleged Yasmin originally said he was born in 1990.  Others just want to stay with their older mates.

There’s no doubt the ‘scum’ running the refugee boats know that using kids as crew means many are likely to be deported.

While freedom can’t be compromised and locking kids in adult jails is unconscionable, the ugly irony is that living conditions in Australian prisons can be better than in some Indonesian villages. Inmates are well fed and have access to free medical care and education.

There are reports that Yasmin is now so fluent in English he’s been acting as an interpreter for other Indonesian prisoners.

Why did it take a small lobby group and the media to goad the Australian government into action?  Why didn’t the Indonesian authorities, backed by an outraged public and pushed by probing journalists, loudly demand that the Republic’s young and vulnerable citizens be immediately repatriated?

That’s what happened last year when a 14-year old Australian boy spent several weeks in custody in Bali after being arrested on drug charges.  The howls of protest were so shrill Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard even spoke to the youth by phone when he was in custody telling him that everything possible would be done to get him home.

There’s no record of Indonesian ministers contacting Yasmin and his teen friends with similar assurances.

Foreign Affairs Minister Marty Natalegawa has reportedly said a regional solution is needed to fix the mess.  A good starting point would be for Australia to stop its hypocrisy and Indonesia to stop the people trafficking mafioso. 

## 

INDONESIAN FISHERS FACE AUSTRALIAN JUSTICE

THE QUEEN CONFRONTS X HADI

For a clear example of the cultural gulf between Indonesia and Australia consider these proceedings in Perth’s District Court.

In late February three Indonesian fishermen were each jailed for five years. Their crime - helping Afghan asylum seekers get to Australia.

They weren’t the Mt Bigs who do secret business in Indonesian shopping malls, seemingly immune, selling high-price illegal passages to desperate people.

The crew are the gullible victims. While they’re behind bars the Afghans they helped now walk Perth’s streets as free men. In return they give evidence in court against the Indonesians.

Day One in courtroom 7.1. X Riyan and X Hadi shuffle into the dock, confused and chilled, for the air conditioning is like the justice system - icily efficient. Riyan, 28, wears a blue top, Hadi, age unknown, an oversize fleecy white and black hoodie, hiding his hands in the long sleeves. Through their interpreters they plead ‘not guilty’.

Judge Richard Keen politely asks them to sit and the trial gets underway. Officially it’s called The Queen v X Riyan and X Hadi; Australia’s legal system can’t cope with one-name people.

Facing them across the wide and almost empty court (an Indonesian diplomat occasionally attends) sits the randomly selected jury of 12 citizens. Being judged by your peers is an ancient principle of imported British justice.

But peers they are not; the comprehension gap between the eight men and four women of Western Australia’s booming capital and the poor knockabout fishers of the Archipelago is as wide as the Arafura Sea.

According to Hadi his journey started in May 2010 when he crewed a boat carrying coconuts to Flores. The job done, he thought they were heading back to Batam.

Instead the boat went to Probolinggo on East Java’s north coast. Offshore and at night it collected 54 Afghan men and headed west, then south. On 3 June they were stopped by the Australian naval patrol boat HMAS Maryborough.

The issue of asylum seekers being trafficked by Indonesians is a weeping sore festering relations between the two countries. There’s little public sympathy on either side. Last year 168 Indonesian crew illegally brought 4,565 people on 69 boats– the previous year the numbers were almost double.

Skipper Mahmud Rizalhad already pleaded guilty. So for nine days two prosecutors, two defence lawyers, plus their interpreters, all paid by the Australian taxpayer, tread a long and tedious road of detailed evidence and ponderous procedure.

It’s obvious the two men have credibility problems. They tell different stories. To Western ears some elements sound fantastic

Riyan says he was picked up in Jakarta and offered Rp 15 million (AUD $1,500) to help take the boat to Probolinggo for sale. He claims ignorance of people smuggling.

Prosecutor Anthony Eyers makes much of the fact that Riyan was earning only Rp 25,000 (AUD $2.50) a day fishing. So he surely knew something illegal was planned when 600 days income was proposed by an unnamed ‘friend’ for four days work.

Hadi says he didn’t get paid and hadn’t negotiated a salary. Mr Eyers, and presumably the jury, think this incredible. Hadi protests that Indonesian lads don’t question or quibble.

He also says he knew nothing about destination Australia. But the boat was carrying ample water and food along with lifejackets and mattresses for 57, not three.

Even if he hadn’t noticed the gear and supplies why didn’t Hadi jump up,when the Afghans clambered aboard like phantoms in the darkness, shouting: ‘Hey boss, this isn’t right – I want out!’

He tells the court he was seasick at the time. He didn’t add that even if he’d been fit and brave it probably wouldn’t have made any difference.

Hadi might have avoided court if he’d held to earlier claims to be under 18. If proven he’d have been flownback to his Mum in Solo.

“We’re dealing here with poor, almost illiterate village people,” said Indonesia Institute president Ross Taylor outside the court. “They have no understanding of the risks and consequences.

“Australia is running a deterrent policy and the kids are the victims. The real people smugglers exploit Australia’s decency and commitment to human rights – and stay in Jakarta.”

At the Indonesian Consulate-General office Chancery head Syahri Sakidin said Hadi tired of constant questions about his age. “In prison he gets good food, high quality medical care, and earns AUD $30 a week doing kitchen chores,” he said

Hadi and Riyan are with other Indonesians and apparently get on well with staff and prisoners. Indonesian is now the most common foreign language in WA jails.

“This issue is like a sieve. Block one hole and the water just comes out another. They cannot put a deterrent in place that will actually deter,” said activist Victoria Martin-Iverson of the Refugee Rights Action Network outside the court.

“Before we got involved they couldn’t contact their families, and Indonesian authorities didn’t know of their existence. Many are depressed and fearful.”

Not all, according to Mr Sakidin. “Two boys I took home thought they’d had a kind of heroic adventure, like Indiana Jones. They were treated like returning tourists while we’re telling others not to go.

“The people smuggling mafia are using poor fishermen like marine ojek (motorcycle taxis). You have to understand the irony. It’s shameful they’re getting money that way but you have to see it through their eyes.

“It’s irritating international relations. We should be spending our time discussing bigger issues.”

When sentencing Riyan and Hadi to the mandatory minimum period, Judge Keen said jailing the men would “bring home the message” that Australia treats people smuggling seriously. Whether anyone in the Archipelago is listening is another matter.

The sentences were back dated and parole allowed after three years. So the men may be deported mid 2013 if they behave.

During the trial six more boats carrying asylum seekers were caught. Each had two or three Indonesian crew. There’ll be plenty of business ahead for Australia’s courts

(First published in The Jakarta Post 10 March 2010)

##