People-smuggling boat carrying Chinese stopped en route to Australia

Singapore: Indonesian police have caught six Chinese nationals and six suspected people smugglers who were believed to be attempting an illegal boat journey to Australia.

East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) police said on Friday that the group was discovered on Wednesday in waters near the city of Kupang, a roughly 500-kilometre journey from Australia.

Fishing boats in Indonesia.

The failed mission comes about a month after a separate group of Chinese successfully reached northern Western Australia and wandered into the Truscott airbase.

In February, 39 Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indian citizens also reached WA with Indonesian people smugglers. All the would-be immigrants from both ventures were rounded up in Australia and sent to Nauru for processing.

Border security is an especially sensitive political issue since a landmark High Court ruling in November that freed certain foreigners from indefinite detention. The Opposition has sought to blame Labor for the situation.

NTT senior commander Ariasandy, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, said officers on a routine patrol approached the boat on May 8, only for it to speed up and away.

“The patrol personnel were suspicious,” he said. “They approached again and stopped them. That’s when they found six Chinese nationals and six Indonesian crew in the boat.”

“It is suspected that they were going to Australia [but] we are still investigating.”

This masthead reported in March a group of 15 Chinese men had been asking around Kupang about getting to Australia, but were rebuffed because local fishermen were reluctant.

Acting on a tip-off from the Australian Federal Police, West Timor police interviewed the men, but had to let them go because no offence had been committed by asking questions.

The last local police knew, the group had left the Kupang region and, presumably, returned to China. But Ariasandy said one of these men was among the six discovered on Wednesday.

Other attempts to reach Australia this year have been foiled, including a boat from Vietnam and another from Papua New Guinea that was transporting African men. Trepang, or sea cucumber, fishermen are regularly making it to Australian territory.

The Australian Border Force did not respond to requests for information.

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