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Comments: Oz proves itself a bad neighbor: Expert

Jan

The Jakarta Post
Sat, January 18, 2014

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Comments: Oz proves itself a bad neighbor: Expert

J

an. 7, Online

Australia'€™s move to force a boatload of asylum seekers back into Indonesian waters is further proof that the country is not a good neighbor to Indonesia, says an international law expert.

'€œAustralia only wants to wash its hands [of the matter] and dump its problem on Indonesia. What they have done is not in line with the principle of being a good neighbor,'€ Hikmahanto Juwana of the University of Indonesia said on Tuesday.

Your comments:

First of all, the boats come from Indonesia: ipso facto, send them back to '€œwhere they came from'€.

Indonesia and its civil servants, including the police and military, actively assist in getting them the boats and crew in order to dump them on Australia.

Second, after returning to Indonesia, does the Indonesian government then re-check their return tickets, which they had to have when they entered Indonesia? And then send them back to where they came from?

Brien

Indonesia-registered boats illegally entering Australian waters should be bounced back to where they came from. Let us imagine the reverse situation, where Australian boats enter Indonesian waters illegally and try to reach Indonesia'€™s shores to smuggle, for example alcohol or drugs. What would the Indonesian authorities do? They would likely not let such a thing happen. According to Hikmahanto Juwana'€™s terms, Indonesia would therefore prove to be '€œbad neighbor'€.

Sabar

By permitting these people into Indonesia, Indonesia created the problem for itself.  Just because people enter Indonesia to get to Australia doesn'€™t mean they have any legal right to do so.  Basically, all Australia has done is forbid their entry into Australia. It is no less than Indonesia stopping the entry of the Freedom Flotilla into Merauke.  

It'€™s very simple for Indonesia to divest itself of this problem.  Don'€™t allow these people entry into Indonesia.  But of course, too many people in Indonesia are making money out of this. Indonesia will just have to accept that it is its problem and decide whether the money made is worth it.

Jagera

It'€™s Indonesia who is the bad neighbor. How can anyone say that Australia is wrong to turn back Indonesian boats with Indonesian crew who left Indonesian ports for the purpose of dumping illegal cargo collected in Indonesia in Australia?

The solution to this problem is quite simple - don'€™t allow these people to fly in to Indonesia in the first place. If Indonesia made some effort to protect its own borders and refused to allow to be used by international crime gangs then this problem would disappear very rapidly.

Surely it is not in Indonesia'€™s interests to allow foreign criminals to corrupt its military, police and government officials in this way.

These illegal immigrants leaving from Indonesia are Indonesia'€™s problem '€” not Australia'€™s.

Jack Richard

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