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Indonesian police detain asylum seekers on Lombok
Indonesian police have detained 251 refugees on the island of Lombok, with thousands of others scattered throughout Indonesia secretly waiting to set sail for Australia.
Local officials are warning that the number of refugees passing through Indonesia enroute to Australia will increase as local crime syndicates take advantage of the Asian nation's poor law enforcement and deserted shorelines to hire fishing boats to carry the illegal immigrants.
Police in Lombok says the 251 migrants now in detention were caught just before boarding a boat bound for Australia, Foreign Minister Hasan Wirayuda says about 2,000 refugees - mainly from Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq - are in detention throughout Indonesia.
The head of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in Indonesia, Raymond Hall, says criminal syndicates are responsible for much of the trade in illegal immigrants and many of the them seem to operate openly.
30/08/01 15:30:54 | ABC Radio Australia News
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