People-smuggling bust stokes debate

Australian police helped stop people-smugglers from Malaysia days ago, triggering a pre-election attack on Labor’s policies.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton declared Bill Shorten cannot be trusted on border protection and the boats “have not gone away”. Picture: Getty Images

Australian police helped stop a people-smuggling venture from Malaysia just 10 days ago, triggering a pre-election attack from Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, who declared Bill Shorten cannot be trusted on border protection and the boats “have not gone away”.

The Australian can reveal the Royal Malaysia Police, assisted by the Australian Federal Police, prevented 34 people from departing Port Klang on Malaysia’s west coast on January 4.

The group had been promised they would be sent to Australia or New Zealand and included 24 Sri Lankans (12 men, eight women, two boys and two girls) and 10 Indians (four men, three women and three girls).

Police also arrested three men who they say were members of a people-smuggling syndicate that has been active since mid-2018.

The syndicate purchased a “tourist cruiser boat” for the journey, according to Malaysia’s nat­ional police chief Mohamad Fuzi Harun, and was in the process of purchasing three engines “for the purpose of smuggling migrants to Australia and New Zealand”.

Mr Dutton, who thanked the Malaysian government for its efforts to combat people-­smuggling, said the disruption showed Australia and New Zealand were still being marketed as key destinations by criminal syndicates.

Ramping up his criticism of Labor’s border policies ahead of the federal election, due by May 18, Mr Dutton said: “Don’t believe Bill Shorten, the boats have not gone away. It is only the ­Coalition’s policies which have halted the people-smugglers.

“Just like Kevin Rudd, if elected Bill Shorten will change our border policies and the result will be more boats, more deaths at sea and more children in detention. He is not worth the risk at the border.”

The latest government numbers show Operation Sovereign Borders has disrupted 80 people-smuggling ventures since its inception in September 2013 — including 11 in Malaysia, 15 in Sri Lanka, 53 in Indonesia and one in Pakistan — and stopped 2573 ­potential illegal immigrants from boarding boats to come to Australia.

Another 617 people-smuggling arrests have been made overseas, with 492 of them occurring in Sri Lanka.

The 34 Sri Lankan and Indian nationals and three people-smugglers were detained for investi­gation and could be prosecuted for attempting to exit Malaysia via unauthorised means.

“With this arrest, PDRM (Royal Malaysia Police) has successfully disabled one network of human trafficking syndicates in Malaysia which operated since the middle of 2018 and has an international network of links across Sri Lanka, India, Australia and New Zealand,” Mr Fuzi Harun said.

“Efforts to track and combat the human trafficking chain will continue to be enhanced by the PDRM, in order to ensure that ­migrant smuggling activities are fully eradicated.”

The domestic political debate over refugees intensified late last year as Labor softened its asylum-seeker policy at its national conference by formally endorsing doctor-ordered medical evacu­ations off Manus Island and Nauru, as called for by independent MP Kerryn Phelps and key crossbenchers.

If elected, Labor will also increase the community-sponsored refugee intake from 1000 to up to 5000 places annually and appoint a special envoy for refugee and asylum-seeker issues to help ­secure third-country resettlement agreements.

The government accused Labor of “unravelling Operation Sovereign Borders”. Labor has repeatedly urged the government to negotiate an agreement with New Zealand to resettle refugees being held in offshore detention but there are fears such a deal could boost the people-smuggling trade.

There are 38 AFP officers stationed across Asia as part of Operation Sovereign Borders.