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Indonesia demands answers from Australia over bribery allegation

Indonesia Vice President, Jusuf Kalla, on Monday said Australia should come clean about allegations that its authorities paid smugglers to divert migrant boats at sea to Indonesia. ``It is bribery, right? It is wrong for people to bribe, let alone a state. Surely it is unethical especially in terms of diplomatic relations. ``They are still…

Jusuf_KallaIndonesia Vice President, Jusuf Kalla, on Monday said Australia should come clean about allegations that its authorities paid smugglers to divert migrant boats at sea to Indonesia.

“It is bribery, right? It is wrong for people to bribe, let alone a state. Surely it is unethical especially in terms of diplomatic relations.

“They are still just news reports but we need to know the truth,’’ Kalla said.

He said the alleged payments could be classify as human trafficking, because Australia was obliged to abide by international accords on how to treat refugees.

The allegations emerged after reports citing some migrants who said a boat captain and crew were given 5,000 dollars each by Australian authorities who intercepted them at sea, to detour to Indonesia in late May.

Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, did not confirm or deny the reports when asked on Friday.

“The Australian government will do whatever we need to do to keep this evil trade stopped.
“I just do not want to go into details,’’ Abbott said.

He later said border protection agencies had been “incredibly creative in coming up with a whole range of strategies’’ to stop people smuggling.

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