Amnesty says Australian officials who paid people smugglers to turn boats back committed transnational crimes
By political reporters Matthew Doran and Jane Norman
Updated 33 minutes ago
Australian officials who paid people smugglers to return to Indonesia have committed a transnational crime and put lives at risk, according to allegations from Amnesty International.
The organisation has released a report in which it details evidence of Australian Navy and Border Force officials intercepting a people smuggling boat and paying the crew to turn around.
It recommends a royal commission into the alleged payments, as well as an investigation into a second incident where payments were also alleged to have been made.
Senior ministers have previously expressly denied the involvement of Border Force and Defence Force officials in any payments to people smugglers, but that denial has never been extended to intelligence officials.
A spokesman for Immigration Minister Peter Dutton described the Amnesty report as "a slur on the men and women of the Australian Border Force (ABF) and Australian Defence Force (ADF)".
The report said the first case occurred in May 2015, when a boat believed to be heading to New Zealand was intercepted, carrying more than 60 people and six crew.
Amnesty said it has interviewed all of the people on board to piece together exactly what happened.
The boat was allegedly intercepted twice, before being taken to Greenhill Island near Darwin.
People on board were then encouraged to bathe on the Border Force ship, according to Amnesty International.
"It was at this point, on the original boat, that the crew claim the Australian officials gave them money," the report said.
"The crew told Amnesty International that two of them received $USD6,000 each, and four received $USD5,000 apiece, making a total of $USD32,000.
"One of the 15 asylum seekers who had remained on board described how he saw the captain meeting with the Australians in the boat's kitchen and saw the captain put a thick white envelope in his shorts' pocket."
Asylum seekers turned back despite risks of human rights abuses
The second alleged incident happened in late July, and Amnesty said it interviewed 15 people from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Myanmar.
That boat was allegedly pushed back to Rote Island in Indonesia.
Amnesty International claimed the evidence suggests a breach of international law, because "Australian officials appear to have organised or directed the crew to commit a people-smuggling offence".
"The $USD32,000 constitutes a financial benefit to the crew to procure the illegal entry," the report said.
"The Australian officials who paid the smugglers and instructed them to land on Rote Island in May 2015 may also have participated as accomplices in the transnational crime of people-smuggling."
Further to that, Amnesty said the officials put lives at risk.
"In the cases documented by Amnesty International, Australia turned back people, at least some of whom were asylum seekers, without any assessment of each person's individual situation, including the risk of serious human rights violations or abuses, either in the country to which they were being returned or in another country to which they might be sent."
Dutton's office says ABF and ADF operate lawfully
Mr Dutton slammed the report, saying Amnesty's suggestion Australian officials treated asylum seekers inhumanely was "a slur on the men and women of the ABF and ADF".
"[Amnesty] don't like Operation Sovereign Borders, they try and attack the Border Force staff, and the Naval staff, and I think it's a disgrace," he told Macquarie Radio.
"We went to the last election saying that we would stop the boats — stop them we have.
"And we're not going to be bullied into some watering down of that."
First posted about 5 hours ago
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