JAKARTA: Indonesian police said Wednesday Australia sent back dozens of illegal migrants to a remote southern island after intercepting their vessel at sea, at least the second time this has happened this year.
The police chief of Indonesia’s Rote island told AFP the migrants landed last month in two boats they said they had been forced to board after an Australian vessel intercepted their wooden craft.
Police chief Mardiono, who like many Indonesians goes by just one name, said they initially received reports of a vessel running aground.
“After we checked, we found a boat... made from aluminum, without a name and without a flag,” he said, adding it was carrying 22 people.
Later that day police found a similar vessel carrying another 22 men that ran aground on a different part of the island.
Mardiono said most of the men identified themselves as Bangladeshis and also include eight Rohingya from Myanmar. They were in custody at local police headquarters.
He said they claimed to have spent three days at sea before being intercepted by an Australian vessel.
They said they were detained for 18 days before being put aboard two boats and told to head to the Rote island, he added.
Their claims could not be independently verified.
An Australian Border Force (ABF) spokesperson told AFP in a statement that it “does not confirm or comment on operational matters.”
In June, Indonesian immigration authorities said in a statement that it detained 28 foreigners stranded on a beach on southern Java who said they had been set adrift after being intercepted by Australian authorities.
Under a hard-line policy introduced more than a decade ago, Australia has sent thousands of migrants attempting to reach the country by boat to detention centers on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island and the tiny Pacific nation of Nauru.
Successive Australian governments have vowed that no asylum seeker arriving by boat will ever be allowed to permanently settle in the country.
Australia sent back migrants to remote island: Indonesia police
https://arab.news/bvznq
Australia sent back migrants to remote island: Indonesia police
- Migrants landed last month in two boats they said they had been forced to board after an Australian vessel intercepted their wooden craft
- Australia has sent thousands of migrants attempting to reach the country by boat to detention centers on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island and the tiny Pacific nation of Nauru
Sweden unveils new prison conditions for teens
- The loosely-formed networks have increasingly recruited under-15s, often online, as highly-paid hitmen
- Eight existing prisons have been tasked with preparing special sections for children
STOCKHOLM: Sweden on Thursday revealed prison conditions that teens as young as 13 will face if convicted of a serious criminal offense, once a much-criticized juvenile judicial reform takes effect in July.
The minority rightwing government, which is backed by the far-right Sweden Democrats and has prioritized the fight against surging crime rates, announced in January that it would reduce the age of criminal responsibility from 15 to 13.
A majority of the 126 authorities the government consulted about the change were critical or opposed it outright, including the police and the prison service, but the government has moved forward with its plans regardless.
The Scandinavian country has struggled for more than a decade to contain a surge in organized violent crime, linked primarily to settlings of scores between rival gangs and battles to control the drug market.
The loosely-formed networks have increasingly recruited under-15s, often online, as highly-paid hitmen to carry out bombings and shootings, knowing they would not face prison time if caught.
Eight existing prisons have been tasked with preparing special sections for children, with three of them due to open by July 1 when the reform is scheduled to enter into force, the government said Thursday.
The children will be kept separated from adult inmates, and will be locked in their cells for 11 hours at night instead of the 14 hours for adults, Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer told a press conference.
In addition to attending school lessons during the day, the children will have their own cafeteria, recreation yard, gym and infirmary.
Currently, most minors found guilty of serious crimes are not sentenced to prison.
They are usually ordered into closed detention facilities, called SIS homes, tasked with mandatory care and rehabilitation, rather than a punitive system like prison.
However, many SIS homes have in recent years become recruiting bases for the criminal networks.
- ‘Counter-productive’ -
“Society and crime have changed fundamentally,” Strommer said.
“Young people in general commit fewer crimes. But those who do commit more and much more serious crimes,” he said, adding that “it is much more common for youths to use weapons and explosives.”
He said Sweden was facing “an emergency situation with the gangs, the shootings and explosions with 15, 16 or 17-year-old kids convicted of murder or involvement in murder plots.”
“But there are even younger children involved... For a long time, we have done far too little to address this development, and the system simply hasn’t kept up.”
Children’s rights association Bris said the government’s reform was “counter-productive, insufficiently researched and violates children’s rights.”
It warned that locking such young children away in prison would lead to increased recidivism and encourage criminal networks to recruit ever younger children.
The union representing social workers and prison and SIS home employees, Akademikerförbundet SSR, was also critical, lamenting the speed at which the reform was being pushed through.
“We are very concerned that the Swedish Prison and Probation Service will not have time to build up staff expertise in working with children and to establish a high-quality school,” union expert Fredrik Hjulstrom said.
“The staff of the Prison and Probation Service are qualified to work with adults, and a completely different set of skills is required to succeed with children.”
The reform is being introduced temporarily, limited to five years to start with.
The government is currently trying to rapidly push through a slew of reforms in various areas, ahead of legislative elections in September.
