Indonesian fishermen reportedly handed over six undocumented Bangladeshi migrants to authorities in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, claiming they had been tricked by Australian naval officers into taking the undocumented migrants into Indonesian territory.

The fishermen said they were first told that the six people they had been entrusted with were Indonesian fishermen whose ship sunk while fishing in Indonesian and Australian waters.

'€œWe later found out that six of the eight people were foreigners while the two Indonesians acted as their guides,'€ Gab Oma, 39, a fisherman from Oesapa, Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, told thejakartapost.com on Wednesday evening. Accompanied by fellow fishermen Muhamad Hatta, Hamzah, and Soewardi, Gab explained the chronology of their encounter with the six Bangladeshis.

Before handing over the migrants, Gab said, the Australian naval officers gave him and his fellow fishermen two bags of rice weighing 10 kilograms each, two boxes of mineral water, fuel in two jerry cans with a capacity of 30 liters each, 14 cans of soda, eight life jackets and snacks.

'€œAfter we accepted the supplies and fuel, they escorted the migrants and their smugglers onto our boat,'€ said Gab.

After learning that six of the men were undocumented migrants, Gab said, he and his fellow fishermen tried to turn down the request to help them, but the naval vessel quickly moved back into Australian territory.

'€œIf we knew that those people were undocumented migrants, we would have said no from the start. They told us that they found fishermen whose vessel sank and we thought they were Indonesian. Apparently, they were Bangladeshi migrants,'€ Gab deplored.

He further said that in February, an Indonesian fishing boat sank while fishing in Indonesian and Australian waters. Australian naval officers helped rescue seven fishermen during the incident and entrusted them with an Indonesian fishermen boat.

'€œFrankly, we felt tricked,'€ said Gab.

As the six people are undocumented migrants, he said, the Australian navy should have handed them over directly to the Indonesian government.

Gab said he and his fishermen friends felt uneasy about the actions of the Australian naval officers.

'€œThose migrants were depressed. If they realized that they were going to be handed over to Indonesia, they might have tried to steal our boat to get to Australia on their own,'€ he said.

Gab further said that he and his friends suffered losses from the incident because it forced them to return to Oesapa without any catch.

As reported earlier, a patrol vessel from the East Nusa Tenggara Police Water Police picked up the Bangladeshi migrants and their smugglers around 12 miles from Tablolong Beach, West Kupang district, Kupang regency, on Wednesday.

Gab said he was shocked by the Indonesian government'€™s carelessness on the issue of undocumented migrants and that the Australian naval officers had entered Indonesian waters.

'€œThey [Australian naval officers] were within Indonesian territory. According to my GPS, we were only 28 miles from Amarasi Beach when they escorted the undocumented migrants onto our boat,'€ said Gab. (ebf)

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