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V. EXPERIENCES AND CHOICES DURING FLIGHT


Vulnerability at the hands of people-smugglers
The sense of powerlessness over their own destiny was overwhelming for refugees who were leaving their region of origin for the first time in their lives. For many, it was their first time on a plane or their first experience of seeing the ocean, never mind crossing it. Carrying documents in languages they could not read, knowing nothing of the laws or official practices in transit countries, and being told they could not step outside smugglers' houses or hotel rooms without risking arrest and deportation left them at the mercy of the smugglers.

Even those refugees who were most exploited by smugglers, regarded them mainly as unscrupulous opportunists. Refugees described their smugglers as:
· Friends or relatives acting without remuneration to assist with the first flight from the country of origin, technically not "smugglers"111; or,
· Compatriots acting for profit, especially in Afghanistan, where smuggling of all types is the single largest source of foreign revenue;
· Fellow or former refugees, often turned to crime by the lack of legal employment for refugees in countries of first asylum and transit;112 or,
· Traders in illegal migrant labor between western Indonesia and the Malay peninsula113 or other criminals with international connections and corrupt police, military and immigration officials in all Southeast Asian transit countries;114 and finally,
· Impoverished Indonesian fishermen hired to transport them on the last leg of their journey into Australian territorial waters.115

The traumatizing experiences of being smuggled compound the vulnerability of the refugees, especially women and children. One unaccompanied thirteen-year-old boy had spent over a month locked in rooms in Pakistan, Jakarta and Bali, held by smugglers with whom he shared no common language, before being loaded onto an overcrowded boat where he received little share of the food during the nine-day voyage. Seasick the whole way, he arrived at Christmas Island so dehydrated that an Australian doctor immediately put him on an intravenous drip. Despite the trauma of these experiences, this young boy was screened and then given his first asylum interview within forty-eight hours of arrival, during which he told Human Rights Watch that he did not feel he was treated any differently from an adult.116

Fatima, an Iraqi mother intercepted in Indonesia as she traveled to find her husband in Australia, was held hostage by "police or pirates" between Malaysia and Indonesia, then dumped on a remote island where she wandered through the jungle at night with her children, cutting through vines using her shoe heel, pursued by the smuggler whom she feared would rape her and who, at one point, held a knife to her child's neck. Fatima was separated from two of her four children, who were taken off in different boats to unknown locations. It was only by the kindness of other Indonesian and Malay fishermen that the family found one another again.117

Smuggled refugees were, above all, terrified of drowning. Human Rights Watch interviewed one of the forty-four survivors from SIEV X, the boat that sank. The survivor, an Iraqi mother calling herself Ama, remembers counting over 400 people on board a vessel that she had been told was only going to hold 175. Among the smugglers were Indonesian policemen in uniforms and with guns, "just like that man out there," she told Human Rights Watch, pointing out the window at a Jakarta policeman. Ama's son was the last one on board, and she tried to yell at him not to come because of the over-crowding, but he was too far away to hear her.

Three hours before the accident, the engine began to slow down. It was at this time that we sighted dolphins following the boat. The little children were screaming with happiness because they thought the dolphins meant we were close to Australia and that they would see their fathers soon. Now I have been told by the Indonesians that those dolphins probably saved us all from being eaten by sharks when the boat sank, so they were saviors for some of us after all.

When the water rushed in, first we threw all weight off the boat and then those who could swim jumped off. I lost consciousness as the boat was sinking, and when I woke up I was trapped under the hull of the boat with children drowning all around me. I could not swim but managed to float up and then later found a floating cadaver to hold onto. I saw my son also floating in the water and kissed him goodbye. He pulled a lifejacket from a dead man and gave it to me, just before the waves separated us.

After the Indonesian fishermen rescued Ama, she talked them into going back to search for her son and they found him and a woman alive, clinging to a plank of wood. In her interview with Human Rights Watch Ama showed clear signs of trauma from this incident.118

Another survivor of SIEV X, a young Iraqi woman who lost her husband and two daughters in the sinking, independently confirms Ama's statements that Indonesian police were present when the boat was being loaded, adding that these officers later threatened the survivors not to say anything to journalists about their presence. Her own daughters, aged five and six, were trampled in the crush to escape from the boat's sinking hull and she let go of first one child's hand and then the other's once she realized they were dead. After the boat sank, she briefly spotted her husband in the sea before he was washed away. She was five months pregnant at the time. In April 2002, when Human Rights Watch interviewed her, she was alone in Jakarta with her newborn baby, anxiously awaiting resettlement.119

Choice of route and destination
In 2000-01 other countries with asylum procedures and social settlement systems broadly comparable to Australia's experienced comparable increases in people arriving from countries in the Middle East and South Asia where refugee protection conditions were deteriorating.120 A range of countries less developed than Australia from Ghana to Kyrgyzstan to Nepal where Afghan, Iraqi and Iranian refugees could flee have asylum procedures that afforded them formal protection, and a great many refugees do make long-distance secondary movements to non-western countries: there is a large Afghan refugee population living in New Delhi, for example, and an Angolan refugee population in Brazil. It cannot be said that either asylum seekers or smugglers single out Australia simply for the sake of acquiring a better standard of living.

Asked why they had hoped to reach Australia, refugees interviewed by Human Rights Watch gave various responses:
· The decision was taken out of their hands by smugglers;
· They had intended to reach any country that would grant them a secure legal status as a refugee and, of such countries, Australia was the cheapest to reach;
· They had faith in Australia as a country that would respect their human rights; or
· Having been forced to flee their homes, they headed for the only country outside their homeland where they had a family member.
The attraction of an affluent economy and better standard of living, while acknowledged, was never the refugees' primary motive for secondary movement.

The smuggler's decision
Traveling outside one's immediate region is expensive, regardless of the destination.121 Because refugees tend to put themselves into heavy debt to smugglers, they need to go to a relatively prosperous country to work off the debt within the required time period. Failure to pay up may have serious repercussions for relatives back home. In this sense, the fact that refugees use smugglers does determine their need to reach an affluent country.

A surprising number of asylum seekers interviewed by Human Rights Watch were never told where they were being taken. One young man with little knowledge of geography thought he was going to London until he learned otherwise when he found himself on an Indonesian boat. One seventeen year old Pashtun boy named Akif was sent away by his mother after his father, who worked for a British agricultural development agency, was assassinated in Kabul. Smugglers promised him they would get him to Australia by legal means, but Akif realized this was a lie when he was forced to overstay his tourist visa in Malaysia. At this point, however, it was too late to go home.122

Seeking a legal status
Most refugees interviewed by Human Rights Watch had only asked the smugglers that they be taken to a country that would give them a secure legal status,123 which they lacked in their first countries of asylum. They had heard of only a few western countries that offered asylum to people from any region of the world and as well as permanent residence permits to refugees unable to return to their homes anytime in the foreseeable future. When interviewees referred to wanting to reach "any country which accepts refugees"124 or a "safe country"125 these two things were what they primarily had in mind. From their perspective, a country where UNHCR is operating but where the government remains hostile to refugees' presence and may insist on their resettlement, does not qualify as "accepting" of refugees.126 One father of a large Afghan family said he would willingly go "anywhere in the whole world where my children could go to school and have a legal status."127

At least 80 percent of all Middle Eastern asylum seekers to Australia pass through Malaysia,128 because that country grants visa-free entry to all nationals of Islamic countries (though after September 11, 2001, some are required to have a letter of introduction). They are automatically granted a short-term visitor's visa upon arrival at Kuala Lumpur airport. Refugees interviewed in Indonesia and Australia said that, if they wanted to get out of the Middle East, Malaysia was the cheapest destination with such a visa policy that could be reached by air. From there, the low-cost, high-risk options for the final legs of the journey to Australia are small, rickety boats. Any other route - to Europe or North America, for example - requires more forged documentation to pass through central Europe or Central America. That is not only much more expensive but also more time-consuming while these documents are prepared or obtained.129 One Afghan woman told Human Rights Watch that she had a sister in San Francisco and a brother in Germany, but that she, her husband, mother, and four-year-old daughter had headed for Australia, where they had no relations, because it was several thousand dollars cheaper, allowing them to keep the family group together. Now she and her family are waiting for refugee determination in Indonesia and if recognized would be willing to go "anywhere in the world that would give us documents to work and to travel. Then we could visit our relatives, even if we could not live in the same country."130

Australia's reputation for respect of human rights
Refugees commonly cited Australia's historical credentials and global reputation as a leading defender of human rights, which recent refugee policy may be rapidly eliminating. They frequently mentioned Australia's democratic government and its civil and political freedoms, and one young Afghan widow could not grasp why Australia might allow her to come as part of a women-at-risk resettlement program131 but not if she traveled to Australia at her own expense: "I knew nothing about Australia except its name, and I was told that they were people who supported human rights and would take care of a woman refugee who was alone," she told Human Rights Watch.132 Sometimes refugees see Australia as a haven from civil strife. One Afghan boy said he had picked Australia because he saw on the map that "they have all one country with no borders inside the middle, so there would be no wars."133

Family Reunification
Family ties were also factored into the decisions of many refugees to go to Australia. Many of those interviewed by Human Rights Watch had members of their immediate family134 in Australia or their only relative outside their home country lived in Australia. Women whose husbands had already been recognized as refugees in Australia, but who were denied the right of family reunification felt they had no other option than to try to join them on their own accord. This necessitated leaving the country to which they had first fled in an "unauthorized" manner.

Human Rights Watch met one Iraqi refugee in Indonesia who had already spent two and half years in Australia, where he had been recognized as a refugee, but was so frustrated at delays in reuniting with his wife that he traveled back to Jakarta in order to help her enter Australia illegally. The couple were on board a boat that was intercepted and returned to Indonesia, so they now have to start from scratch and file a new asylum application under the wife's name and hope for resettlement to another country such as New Zealand or the United States.135

111 "People-smuggling" is properly defined as the procurement, in order to obtain, directly or indirectly, a financial or other material benefit, of the illegal entry of a person into a state of which the person is not a national or permanent resident. UN Protocol Against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, Supplementing the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime (2000) [G.A. res. 55/25, annex III, 55 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No.49) at 65, U.N. Doc A/55/49 (Vol.I) (2001)], Article 3 - not yet in force. Under Australian law, however, no financial or other material benefit needs to be involved for "people-smuggling" to take place. Migration Act 1958, Section 233a.

112 In one case, an Iranian refugee who was stranded in Indonesia without money to complete his trip was exploited by criminals threatening to hand him in as an illegal migrant if he did not cooperate with their operations. Eventually he found his own way to Australia after twenty-six days on foot through the jungle and then eighteen hours in a small boat to the Torres Strait, but he also took two fellow refugees with him in order to pay for the voyage, which makes him a "smuggler" under Australian law. Human Rights Watch interview, No. 37, Sydney, April 6, 2002.

113 There is a long tradition of trading between the Arab world and Indonesians living in Batam and the north coast of Java, of which people-smuggling is only the modern manifestation.

114 Several refugees interviewed by Human Rights Watch testified to the involvement of Indonesian police in smuggling activities. One Afghan man who repeatedly attempted to take boats to Australia, said that the Indonesian police were present many times, often taking bribes to overlook the fact that the refugees were being kept in hotel rooms. More actively, a police officer was sometimes paid to provide protection from arrest by others: "I myself saw that every time we wanted to go to the beach [to board a boat for Australia], in each car there was an Indonesian police officer. Once I sat next to one in the car and he fell asleep with his head on my shoulder. He joked that I should take his hat and be the policeman because he was tired of it - he said he would rather be me." Human Rights Watch interview, No. 26, Mataram, Indonesia, April 17, 2002.

115 There is evidence that Indonesian traditional fishermen were forced into the people-smuggling business as insurance against the risk of having their boats burned for being caught unwittingly beyond their own fishing grounds, which have regulated and cut back more and more by Australian laws. New penalties have made even this a poor insurance strategy, however: in February 2002, an Indonesian fisherman was sentenced to eight years in prison for people-smuggling after being paid a mere A$285 for the voyage. See Australian Council for Overseas Aid (ACFOA) report on Indonesian "Fishers of Men," 2002.

116 "It was very intense because I had to prove my identity and nationality. They asked me about food and customs in my region, including marriage and economics - things I couldn't know or had never seen because of my age." Human Rights Watch interview No.41, Sydney, April 21, 2002.

117 For a full transcript of this interview, see www.hrw.org/refugees. Human Rights Watch interview, No. 6, Cisawa, Indonesia, April 11, 2002.

118 Human Rights Watch Interview No.11, Jakarta, Indonesia, April 12, 2002.

119 Human Rights Watch Interview No.12, Jakarta, Indonesia, April 12, 2002.

120 During January-April 2001, Iraq and then Afghanistan generated the highest numbers of asylum seekers in industrialized countries. In the E.U., for example, Iraqi applications increased to 40,577 in 2001 from 14,806 in 1995 and Afghan applications to 38,620 in 2001 from 11,166 in 1995. These were the only major countries of origin to show such sizable increases since the early 1990s. In the third quarter of 2001, Europe as a whole had a 20 percent increase in asylum seekers, with the largest single group from Afghanistan. It had a 34 percent increase in the number of Iraqi asylum seekers in the same quarter, many of whom were secondary movers who had previously sought asylum in Iran, Turkey or central Asia. UNHCR, "Refugees by Numbers," 2001.

121 One Afghan man with five children had had to pay US$22,000 to smuggle his family as far as Jakarta in 2001. Human Rights Watch interview No.33, Mataram, Indonesia, April 20, 2002.

122 Human Rights Watch interview, No. 23, Mataram, Indonesia, April 18, 2002.

123 See, for e.g., Human Rights Watch interviews, Nos. 1, 5, 17, 18 and 19.

124 One Hazara man who fled to Pakistan in 1998 and who had personally experienced too much refoulement and other failures of local protection to stay in the region, first decided to go to England via Turkey, Greece and Italy because he had heard that many Afghans were granted asylum there. While making plans, however, he heard that some Afghan friends were mistaken for Kurds and killed while trying to transit Turkey, so he paid a smuggler US$5000 to fly him to Jakarta and take him from there to a country where, as the smuggler put it, "you will never have to feel unsafe or fear return to Afghanistan." Human Rights Watch interview, No. 40, Melbourne, Australia, April 3, 2002.

125 See, for e.g., Human Rights Watch interview No. 39, Melbourne, Australia, April 3, 2002.

126 See also Statement from Woomera detainees to the media in July 2002 that they would rather be sent to "any third world country which would accept us" rather than stay in detention in Australia.

127 Human Rights Watch interview, No. 33, Mataram, Indonesia, April 20, 2002.

128 See Alan Dupont, Refugee and illegal migrants in the Asia-Pacific region (Canberra ANU, 2002), p.13.

129 See, for e.g., Human Rights Watch interviews Nos. 4, 5, 20, 22 and 29.

130 Human Rights Watch interview, No. 15, Mataram, Indonesia, April 15, 2002.

131 Women-at-Risk Programs are resettlement programs for refugee women without the protection of a male relative and at risk of victimization, harassment or serious (often sexual) abuse because of their gender. Australia has one such Program.

132 Human Rights Watch interview, No. 13, Mataram, Indonesia, April 15, 2002.

133 Human Rights Watch interview, No. 33, Mataram, Indonesia, April 20, 2002.

134 In Australian law, "immediate family" means a husband, wife, dependent child or dependent parent. See DIMIA Form 842.

135 Human Rights Watch interview, No. 10, Cisawa, Indonesia, April 11, 2002.

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