Refugees Daily - Internal Global Press Review

The criminal gang that sent a boatload of Sri Lankan asylum-seekers to Aceh last week had "agents" in Australia to lure ­potential clients into taking the journey, according to refugee ­advocates working in India.

These agents in Australia are Sri Lankans who spoke to the would-be asylum-seekers by phone. They told them how much money they were earning, far in excess of the average Indian wage, and how good life was in Australia.

They were also paid to ­reinforce the rumours the people-smugglers had been spreading in the Tamil refugee camps in India: that a change of government would lead to a change of policy.

As Malcolm Turnbull used a new boat turnback and more divis­ions in Labor over ­asylum-seeker policy to stoke doubts yesterday about Bill Shorten's resolve to prevent a return of boats, more details emerged of how people-smugglers were ­operating to lure clients.

"The process is as follows. In order to make the victim have confidence they will get a big ­income, they put a person on the phone they say is in Australia; this person says how they are able to make money, how they work two to three jobs, and how they have a comfortable life," said SC Chandrahasan, a refugee advocate in Chennai, India.

"When they change this to ­Indian rupees, it is very big." Mr Chandrahasan referred to the Australian connections as "agents", and said he believed they were being paid.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said last night smugglers would "use and employ any ­device or person to further their criminal activities to entice vulnerable people to board boats and risk their lives at sea".

Advocates said smuggling gangs arranged for potential ­clients to speak to people in Australia, who might be working as "kitchen hands or butchers". When would-be clients con­verted the wages into rupees it ­appeared "enormous sums" to people who were working for $200 a month. One advocate, Gladston Xavier, said a family of four in a refugee camp received about 2000 rupees ($40) a month, subsidised rations, access to medical care and access to education from the government.

The Prime Minister warned yesterday that the threat faced by people-smugglers was greater than in the Howard era and could be rebuffed only by the "steely ­resolve of my government''.

Mr Turnbull said the latest turnback, of 21 asylum-seekers who were returned to Vietnam this month, was the 28th people-smuggling expedition that had been rebuffed, taking to 734 the number of passengers turned back. He said the challenge of ­people-smuggling "is greater than it has ever been''. "You cannot give an inch to the people-smugglers. They are very determined criminals,'' he said.

However, the Opposition Leader accused the government of sending a signal to people-­smugglers that Australia had a lack of will to deter them.

"There we go, spread a bit of concern and say that somehow Labor has a different policy to the Liberals when it comes to deterring boats,'' Mr Shorten said.

"This is proof positive the Liberals have run out of anything positive to say about themselves.'' Mr Chandrahasan, head of the ­Organisation for Eelam Refugee Rehabilitation, which aims to take refugees in India back to Sri Lanka, said: "You would be surprised to hear that in our refugee camps we talk about your politics. The people-smugglers spread the news. When there was a change of prime minister from (Tony) ­Abbott to Turnbull, ­people-smugglers were spreading news in the camps that things would be better under the new leader." On Aceh's Lhoknga beach yesterday, Sulaima Dewi Subah, 25, told The Australian her brother-in-law had left three years ago from the same southern ­Indian refugee camp where she had grown up. He used the same local agent who ­approached her family last month selling dreams of a vastly better life in Australia. "My brother-in-law told us he is now in Australia," she said. "He told us: 'You come here. Your life will be really good'." Ms Subah insisted she had never heard of Australia's boat turnback policy, nor of its offshore detention facilities, and she had simply taken her brother-in-law and the agent at their words. "They didn't say anything about this. The agent said there would be no problem and that the boat was safe. That's why we started sailing." Indonesian authorities initially refused to let the group onshore, insisting they would instead repair their damaged vessel and tow them back out to sea. By Saturday they had relented, as bad weather buffeted the boat, and they erected tents on the beach for shelter. By Tuesday, immigration offic­ials ­admitted the boat was too damaged to repair and the UNHCR and International Organ­isation for Migration offic­ials were finally granted access to the group.

Yesterday, the 43 Tamils, ­including nine children and one pregnant woman, were bussed to the Lhokseumawe refugee camp six hours away in northern Aceh, stopping briefly at the office of Aceh Governor Zaini Abdulla.

He handed aid to the group and told reporters ­instructions to move the asylum-seekers had come from Vice-President Jusuf Kalla.