Indonesia Sends Gunboats and a Frigate to Patrol its Coast after Australian Ships Illegally Enter Their Waters to turn back Asylum Seekers
- Australian navy ships have been deployed in Indonesian waters
- Illegal activity pushed tensions between countries to 'crisis point'
- Demands that Australian asylum-seeker policy be suspended
- Relations fractured due to 2009 Australian spying revelations
- Indonesia say they will ramp up naval presence in their waters
- Australia denies firing over the bow of asylum seeker boats
- Minister says other missions happened without government knowledge
By Daily Mail UK, 23 January 2014
Australia admitted yesterday that its naval ships had illegally entered Indonesian waters apparently to turn back asylum seeker boats - thrusting the already-fractured relations between the two countries to a crisis point.
Learning about the incursion into Indonesian waters, Jakarta immediately demanded that the right-wing government of Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott suspend its tough policy of turning away boats carrying desperate asylum-seekers.
Relations between the two countries are now at their lowest point in a decade, following revelations by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden last year that in 2009 Australian government agents had tried to listen in to phone calls made by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
The Australian navy ship HMAS Adelaide escorts asylum seeker boats off the coast of Christmas Island
Asylum seekers from Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran cry as Indonesian officers force them to leave an Australian vessel.
Asylum seekers from Middle Eastern countries often travel thousands of miles in rickety boats to seek refuge
In a statement issued last night, Indonesia said it deplored the Indian Ocean breaches and would ramp up its own patrols in areas where the Australian navy had intruded.
Observers feared last night that this could result in physical clashes between Australian and Indonesian vessels.
The crisis erupted after Immigration Minister Scott Morrison admitted yesterday (Fri) that Australian navy vessels had entered Indonesian waters while conducting border protection operations - believed to mean stopping people seeking asylum by 'gatecrashing' Australian territory.
Jakarta responded immediately, declaring that 'the government of Indonesia deplores and rejects the violation of its sovereignty and territorial integrity by the Australian vessels.
An Australian army quick moving rubber boat, preparing for an operation at sea to stop a Norwegian tanker (background) with asylum seekers aboard from docking on their shores
Asylum seekers bound for Australia are evacuated by Indonesian authorities from a tanker in Merak Port. Many of the asylum seekers come from countries like Afghanistan and Iran
'The government of Indonesia underlines that any of such violation of whatever basis constitutes a serious matter in bilateral relations of the two countries.'
In what was conceived as a threat that physical action might be taken should Australian vessels continue to violate Indonesian waters, Jakarta said that it had the 'right to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity in accordance with international laws and the charter of the United nations.'
Jakarta said it rejected Tony Abbott's recently-introduced polity to turn away Australian-bound boats carrying asylum-seekers who have made their way from countries such as Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, stopping off in Indonesia before boarding fishing boats to sail to Australian islands.
The latest crisis comes in the wake of claims by a group of asylum seekers who were turned back to Indonesia that Australian naval ships had fired guns across the bows of their boat - a claim that Canberra has denied.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has had a strict and long standing policy on asylum-seekers and immigration, but has only recently instituted a policy to turn boats away
The influx of refugees has been a source of tragedy in recent years, when in 2010, a boat full of asylum seekers bound for Australia crashed onto the rocks on Christmas Island. The survivors were rescued by a tanker, only to be turned away when they reached Indonesia
Almost as soon as those allegations had died down came the admission by Australia that its navy vessels had encroached into Indonesian waters to stop asylum-seeker boats from sailing on to Australian territory.
Immigration Minister Mr Morrison admitted that there had been a 'number of incursions' by Australian vessels into Indonesian waters during what is known as Operationa Sovereign Borders.
But it is not known whether the navy ships were at the time turning back asylum seeker boats or were there for other reasons.
'This was done unintentionally and without knowledge or sanction by the Australian government,' said Mr Morrison.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has now apologised to Jakarta - and Mr Morrison said a more formal apology would be passed to the Indonesian government.
Australian Navy Illegally Deploys in Indonesian Waters
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