Legal Action Demanded Over Payment Of Crew To Turn Back Boat People

Jakarta (Antara Bali) - International law expert Hikmahanto Juwana said Indonesia could ask for legal action against Australian immigration officials allegedly paying crews of boat carrying asylum seekers to turn away from that country's water territory.

Australian immigration officials have been accused of paying the crew of a boat carrying asylum seekers to turn back to Indonesian territory from Australian territory after Prime Minister Tony Abbott refused to deny the allegations.

Indonesia's foreign minister Retno L Marsudi Saturday demanded answers from Canberra over allegation.

Hikmahanto said Retno already asked the Australian embassy in Jakarta for clarification whether the alleged payment of the crew  is an initiative of the immigration official or it was the policy of the  Australian government.

If it is the official policy of Canberra, Australia had violated the  Convention for Refugee of which it is a member, the professor at the Indonesian University said.

If the paying of the boat crew  was not a policy of the government of Australia , Indonesia could ask Canberra to charge the immigration officials of human smuggling to Indonesia, he said.

The charge is based on a protocol of Transnational Organized Crimes, he said, adding Australia has ratified the  Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air.

If Australia failed to carry out legal action against the immigration official , Canberra had committed a neglect of responsibility, he said.

"It is tantamount to approving driving asylum seekers away using  money. Australia could be charged with allowing human smuggling," he  said.

He said Indonesia  could file  diplomatic protest  and take diplomatic options to ensure that Australia would punish the immigration officials.

Police on the island of Rote said they have received the report about the alleged payment when a boat loaded with 65 asylum seekers from Bangladesh, Myanmar and Sri Lanka that came shore  on the eastern Indonesian island.

The report said the boat was intercepted by the Australian navy when it was on its way to New Zealand  and sent it back to Indonesian territory.

Indonesian authorities have launched an investigation into the alleged payments to the crew of the boat carrying asylum-seekers .

Abbott on Friday said Australia would do "whatever we need" to combat people-smuggling -- but repeatedly refused to deny that a payment was made.

"By hook or by crook, we are going to stop the trade," he said. "We have stopped the trade and we will do what we have to do to ensure that it stays stopped."

Canberra has embarked on a tough immigration policy since Abbott's conservative coalition came into power in September 2013 and refuses to accept asylum-seekers arriving by boats.

The policy includes military-led efforts to turn back such boats, which mostly come from Indonesia, and sending asylum-seekers to camps on the Pacific island outpost of Nauru and Papua New Guinea for resettlement despite strong criticism from human rights groups. (WDY)