The turn-back of two groups of asylum seekers on Monday has put further strain on the Australia-Indonesia relationship after Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa launched another stinging criticism of the Abbott government's boats policy. .
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Indonesian officials confirmed that two boats of asylum seekers were intercepted by Australian naval or Customs vessels in recent days and their 20 passengers put together onto one wooden vessel and pushed back towards Indonesian waters.
Dr Natalegawa said there were a few “issues” between the two countries, but that the boat policy remained a problem.
“[The existence] of a problem has been confirmed by the return [this week],” Dr Natalegawa said.
“[That boat] has been forced back. It proves that Abbott’s policy is not successful. Their unilateral policy coerces asylum seekers, threatens them and violates their human rights — and the policy doesn’t bear fruit [because the boats keep coming] …
“What Australia is doing now is clearly against and denies all comprehensive principles in dealing with the issue of asylum seekers. Australia is acting as if it can simply move the problem to its neighbour,” he said.
Dr Natalegawa was speaking outside a conference that Prime Minister Tony Abbott hastily withdrew from on Friday allegedly because of embarrassment over the imminent boat return.
However, that’s not the explanation Mr Abbott gave the Indonesians — and which was accepted by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono — that he was too busy preparing the federal budget and dealing with the Commission of Audit report.
Dr Natalegawa said there had been “no detailed explanation of the reason for his absence” and that it was “up to the Australian government to provide information”.
A spokesman for the Indonesian Co-ordinating Minister for Legal, Political and Security Affairs, Djoko Suyanto, also criticised the policy.
“The policy of sending the boats back creates uneasy relations … It is unfortunate that Mr Abbott failed to come to Bali, otherwise both heads of state could have sat and talked over the problems together,” said spokesman Agus Barnas.
Mr Agus confirmed on Tuesday that 20 asylum seekers turned back by Australia had arrived on one boat but actually came from two different vessels intercepted by Australian authorities in the same waters.
The two boats are the eighth and ninth confirmed to have been returned to Indonesia under the Operation Sovereign Borders policy.
Some details remain sketchy, but Mr Agus said the first boat, carrying 18 asylum seekers of mixed nationality plus three crew, left from Makassar, South Sulawesi, towards the end of April. The second boat carried just two Nepalese people and one Indonesian crew member, and had left from Rote island in Indonesia’s east on about May 1.
According to a statement released by the Indonesian navy late on Monday night, the larger boat was intercepted by Operation Sovereign Borders vessels on May 1 near Ashmore Reef, an Australian territory in the ocean west of Darwin.
The asylum seekers on that boat said they had been escorted in their wooden vessel closer to Indonesia where, on Sunday, the three men from the other boat were put on board.
The wooden boat was then directed towards Indonesian territory and left behind by the Australian navy. It ran out of fuel or the engine broke down at Lay Island in Indonesia’s remote eastern province. The men were stranded there before being found by Indonesian navy personnel, the statement said.
The 20 are now in immigration detention in Kupang, West Timor, while the crews were being questioned at the local navy office, Mr Agus said.
Australian Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has refused to comment on the turn-back.
