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ustralians should stop accusing Indonesia of human trafficking. Indonesia is unfortunately being used as a transit point for migrants wishing to seek new lives for themselves in Australia.

They are courageous enough to endure high waves and an uncertain life in a new country. These people are trying to escape from the misery caused by endless wars, tribal disputes and utter poverty.

Thousands of migrants wash up on Indonesia'€™s shores on a weekly basis and thank you Australians '€” we never asked these people to come here either. These people then fall into the hands of a syndicate of ruthless human traffickers.

Australia should bear in mind that these human traffickers are also Australians as well as greedy Indonesians and Malaysians. In the meantime Indonesia has to feed, house and clothe thousands of unfortunate people and frankly speaking '€” we also do not need these migrants here on top of our own 250 million people.

The Indonesian authorities cannot be everywhere. Our country consists of more than 30,000 islands big and small. Indonesia is in a most unfavorable position. We cannot turn these unfortunates back.

When they wash up on our shores, should we load them into boats and should we then tell our Navy to drag these people out to sea again and leave them to face the hardship of another life-threatening journey on the high seas? The Thai authorities did that in the past with the Rohingya refugees from Myanmar.

A great number of Rohingnyas are still living in Indonesia i.e. in north Sumatra.

If Australia has an answer to the influx of migrants, please share that with Indonesia because our country is full of these unfortunate people.

Lynna van der Zee-Oehmke
Bogor, West Java