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ndonesian seafarers expressed strong commitments to assist Indonesian and Australian authorities in capturing illegal migrants transiting in Indonesia on their way to Australia.

In his address to a World Maritime Day celebration in Sydney on Sunday, Indonesian Seafarers’ Association (KPI) chairman Hanafi Rustandi said the association had coordinated with the Indonesian Foreign and Transportation Ministries to provide information on illegal immigrants in Indonesian waters and landing on Indonesian islands.

“The KPI will use its information centers at ports and aboard its vessels to report to Indonesian authorities any boat people from Middle Eastern countries such as Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan, hoping to transit in Indonesia on their way to seek asylum in [Australia],” Hanafi said in his address, a copy of which was made available to The Jakarta Post.

Many Indonesian fishing and cargo vessels had reported Iranian and Iraqi boat people in Indonesian waters to authorities and had improved cooperation with the Foreign, Defense and Transportation Ministries and police in uncovering international syndicates believed to be involved in human trafficking activities.

“We are the eyes and ears of security, transportation and fisheries authorities in Indonesia’s extensive sea areas, and not only Indonesian vessels but also foreign boats carrying Indonesian flags and employing Indonesian seafarers have been obliged to report all things threatening Indonesian security, human smuggling and illegal fishing,” he said.

Hanafi said the growth of terrorism in Indonesia was related to an increase in the illegal smuggling of migrants from the Mideast in the past few years.

“Only some of them continue their trips to Australia while some stay in Indonesia and marry local women.

“We don’t know what they have done in their new environment besides giving sermons in mosques and so-called door-to-door dakwah,” he said.

Hanafi said the Indonesian seafarers’ commitment was partly a sign of Indonesia’s appreciation for the comradeship between the Indonesian and Australian seafarers and shipping companies in blocking Dutch shipments of arms and military personnel to Indonesia between 1942 and 1949.

He acknowledged some Indonesian seafarers and port workers didn’t understand the meaning of World Maritime Day because they were still living in abject poverty.

“They are only capable of shouting the word ‘freedom’ but are never free from the shackles of poverty. They are the forgotten people,” he said.

However, he said a larger portion knew that the source of the armed forces of the colonists was raised from the Dutch East Indies government that was in exile in Australia during the Japanese occupation of Southeast Asia, and that when the Indonesian people declared independence the colonialists filled their ships with munitions to sail out of Australian ports and crush the fledging republic.

“They know how Indonesian nationalists and Australian maritime unions worked together for Indonesia’s independence and Australian seafarers’ leader EV Elliott helped Indonesian seafarers set up their first union in Woolloomooloo, Sydney, in 1944,” he said.