Indonesian police have unraveled a people-smuggling network, who they say were involved in smuggling Bangladeshis as Rohingyas to Australia.
Australia’s ABC News reports that that three suspects— a Bangladeshi, a Rohingya and an Indonesian, have been arrested on charges of organising the complex scheme to smuggle people.
Quoting a senior official of the Indonesian police, it said that the people smugglers organised fake papers for six Bangladeshi men who were initially brought by speedboat from Malaysia.
“After a long journey through Kalimantan and Java they were eventually smuggled to the Papuan port of Merauke because it was closest to Australia. The organisers then planned to hire a local fishing boat to bring the men to the Australian mainland,” reads the ABC News report.
It quoted Indonesian police’s Director of General Crime Herry Rudolf Nahak saying that the Bangladeshis working in Malaysi,a who were convinced by the people smugglers that they would earn more money in Australia.
"The modus operandi was designed by a Rohingya refugee, who entered Indonesia in the past, lived in Indonesia, fluently spoke Indonesian then he transformed to become a people smuggler who organised the trips for the Bangladeshis," the reported quoted Nahak saying.
The scheme came undone when Papuans in Merauke became suspicious and reported the strangers to local police. The Bangladeshi men were picked up late last year and detailed the scheme to authorities.
They are now living in witness protection in Indonesia ahead of a trial of the alleged people smugglers.