- VIVA.co.id/Arianti Widya
Australia – A total of 240 Indonesian citizens who were thrown into Australian prison received compensation of AUD 27,5 million after being declared free from punishment on charges of people smuggling.
The Chairman of Indonesia International Initiatives, Colin Singer, Senior Lawyer Ken Cush & Associates Caitlin O'Brien, Mark Barrow, an administrator appointed by the Federal Court of Australia, and Sam Tierney, a lawyer from Ken Cush and Partner, revealed this information in Kuta, Denpasar, Bali, on Friday, to the media.
The hundreds of Indonesian citizens in question are former convicts who were previously imprisoned by the Australian Federal Police on charges of human smuggling using boats.
However, their sentences were later declared invalid based on a court decision, as the Indonesians were minors of the punishment, and it was deemed inappropriate to penalize them as adults.
Colin Singer, an Australian justice observer, stated that the AUD 27.5 million was provided by the Australian government following the Federal Court of Australia's decision on December 22, 2023, as compensation for Indonesian children unlawfully detained in immigration facilities and imprisoned as adults
The court regarded the amount as fair and suitable for distribution among the members of the class-action lawsuit. Mark Barrow from Ken Cush & Associates was appointed by the court to manage the compensation distribution scheme to class-action members within a 12-month period.
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His team has visited Kupang, Rote Island, and Alor in the last three months to process compensation for the group members.
"This is a challenging task because these children are scattered across various islands in Indonesia. They (former detainee children) were released after the Department of Justice decided to return them to Indonesia," Colin explained.
Meanwhile, Sam Tierney explained that most petitioners involved in the class-action lawsuit were detained on Christmas Island or in Darwin, Western Australia, in 2009 and 2012.
They were detained shortly after arriving in Australia on human-smuggling boats.
He mentioned that based on in-depth tracing and investigation of hundreds of still underage detainees, they were generally persuaded to work as crew members when they were children, with job offers such as cooks on ships, unaware that they were being exploited by human-smuggling networks.
According to Australian law at that time, every ship crew found to be minors should be returned to their home country, but these children faced legal charges instead.
Ali Yasmin, one of them, recounted being detained by the Australian Federal Police at the age of 13 for entering Australia on a boat carrying asylum seekers from Afghanistan.
He was one of many Indonesian children prosecuted by Australian authorities between 2007 and 2013 and considered adults using X-ray wrist examination methods to predict their chronological age.
Although the Indonesian Police had sent a valid copy of Ali Yasmin's birth certificate to the Australian Federal Police on October 12, 2010, Ali Yasmin was sentenced to five years in prison as an adult in December 2010.
"Because we entered Australia on a boat carrying asylum seekers, the Australian authorities detained us, and they used X-ray wrist examination methods to predict our chronological age. At that time, I was considered lying, and they falsified my birthdate, stating that I was 19 years old," Ali Yasmin stated.
On May 17, 2012, the Attorney General of Australia announced the release of Indonesian nationals from prison, so on May 18, 2012, Ali Yasmin could return to Indonesia.
In 2017, the Court of Appeal in the state of Western Australia declared a miscarriage of justice had occurred. Therefore, the decision overturned the sentence, and all judges unanimously agreed that Ali Yasmin should be released.
In 2018, Yasmin initiated a class-action lawsuit for compensation on his behalf and on behalf of other Indonesian children.
On December 22, 2023, the Federal Court of Australia decided to award AUD 27.5 million as compensation for Indonesian children unlawfully detained in immigration facilities and imprisoned as adults.
The court assessed the amount as fair and suitable for distribution among class-action members.
The court appointed Mark Barrow from Ken Cush & Associates to manage the compensation distribution scheme to class-action members within a 12-month period.
