Australia, Indonesia ‘determined to end scourge’ of people smuggling

JAKARTA — Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said he had frank and constructive discussions on immigration issues with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono yesterday during his first trip abroad since taking office, a visit that came as the death toll from the latest boat tragedy involving Australia-bound asylum seekers continued to climb.

“We are resolved together, united, to tackle this problem and to beat it, on land and at sea and at the borders of our countries,” Mr Abbott said after meeting Mr Yudhoyono. “We are determined to end this scourge, which is not just an affront to our two countries, but which has so often become a humanitarian disaster in the seas between our two countries.”

Border issues have been a long-standing headache between the two countries. Indonesia, with its thousands of islands and shortage of maritime resources, is often used as a transit point by asylum seekers desperate to reach Australia’s Christmas Island in hopes of starting a better life. Thousands board rickety fishing boats every year to make the often deadly journey, which typically crosses about 340km of open sea.

Mr Abbott won the Sept 7 election on the promise that he would stop the asylum seeker boats.

Indonesia has expressed concern over his “tow-back” plan, which involves the Australian navy intercepting and forcing back Indonesian fishing boats crowded with asylum seekers.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa has warned that the move could breach the country’s sovereignty.

Mr Abbott yesterday said he and Mr Yudhoyono had held “very frank” discussions about “issues of sovereignty and about issues of people smuggling”.

“I do want to stress publicly, as well as privately, bapak President, Australia’s total respect for Indonesia’s sovereignty, a total respect for Indonesia’s territorial integrity,” Mr Abbott said, referring respectfully to Mr Yudhoyono in the Indonesian language.

“I appreciate how seriously Indonesia has taken this issue in the past and I look forward to working even more co-operatively with Indonesia on this issue in the future.”

Mr Yudhoyono agreed that the two countries must work closely together to combat the problem.

“The solution is cooperation,” he said, adding that specific details would be worked out at another forum between the countries. “Effective, precise and good cooperation.”

Australian Immigration Minister Scott Morrison yesterday maintained his government’s policy of refusing to say whether any boat had been turned back to Indonesia since the new administration took power on Sept 18.

“I’m not going to comment on operational issues at sea that compromise current and future operations,” he told a weekly news briefing, adding that the new government has not changed how Australia responds to search and rescue emergencies.

Yesterday, Mr Abbott also stressed the importance of boosting economic ties between the neighbouring countries from the current A$14.6 billion (S$17 billion) a year.

He said a new Australian-Indonesia study centre would be created at Monash University.

“The fact that there is a very strong and high-level delegation of business leaders travelling with me to Indonesia as part of this visit testifies to the desire of the Australian people to build a much stronger ... economic relationship based on greater trade and investment,” he said.

Mr Abbott is accompanied on the two-day trip by Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, Trade Minister Andrew Robb and 20 senior business people.

His visit came three days after a boat packed with asylum seekers sank in Indonesian waters, killing at least 36 and leaving dozens more missing. The boat thought to be carrying more than 100 asylum seekers from the Middle East sank off West Java’s Sukabumi district after being hit by high waves. The exact number of people aboard the boat was unknown due to the lack of a manifest. Agencies