Police: suspected smuggler tricked us

More than 40 Afghan and Turkish asylum seekers escaped from police custody in East Nusa Tenggara and fled to Australia after a suspected people smuggler posed as a government official and ordered their release, a police chief said Friday.

A local community leader in the province challenged the police account, saying that the asylum seekers bribed the police to release them.

Brig. Gen. Antonius Bambang Suedi, the provincial police chief, said the 41 had been detained as llegal immigrants for six weeks at the police station at Sabu island, also known as Sawu island, before officers unwittingly freed them on Tuesday.

Suedi said they had already reached the Ashmore islands, an Australian Indian Ocean territory 120 kilometers south of Rote island, whichi s east of Sabu.

The Australian government said in a statement that 43 asylum seekers with four crew had reached Ashmore by boat on Wednesday. It could not be immediately confirmed on Friday whether they were the same asylum seekers as Suedi referred to. There was no immediate explanation for the discrepancy in asylum seeker numbers.

Suedi said police released the asylum seekers after an unidentified telephone caller claimed to be a Jakarta-based official and said they were to be taken by a chartered boat east to the West Timor city of Kupang.

"We were really fooled by the syndicate member," said Suedi referring to a suspected people smuggling gang.

Suedi said that half way through the 12-hour journey to Kupang, the boat changed course and headed south into Australian waters.

But the police account was challenged by a local Sabu community leader, Markus Dima, who claimed that the asylum seekers bougth their freedom by bribing police.

Dima told kompas.com that rogue police had cooperated with Rote fishermen who had provided the boat that smuggled the asylum seekers to Australia.

Australia is seeking greater cooperation from Indonesian authorities to stem a growing flow of asylum seekers passing through the archipelago with the help of people smugglers and poor fishermen.

Uninhabited Ashmore island is the most popular destination for asylum seekers traveling by boat because setting foot there ensures that Australian officials will process their refugee claims according to United Nations rules.

Suedi said the 41 asylum seekers were among 55 found on Sabu on Jan. 13 and taken into police custody for failing to have Indonesian visas. Since than, 14 had been transferred to an immigration detention center in Kupang, he said.