96 Illegal Immigrants Detained In E Nusa Tenggara

Kupang, NTT (Antara) - The Kupang Immigration Office in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) has detained 96 illegal immigrants during January until May 2013. Head of the immigration office Silvester Sili Laba said here on Thursday that the number rose by around 200 percent from that of the same period in 2012 which was only 30 persons. According to him, the illegal immigrants were detained in Rote Ndao and Kupang Bay before they crossed to Australia by traditional fishing boats to seek political asylum there. He said the 96 illegal immigrants who had been detained since the past five months were made up of 33 persons from Vietnam, six from Myanmar, 10 from Bangladesh, 15 from Sudan, 22 from Somalia, and 10 from India. Sili Laba added that the illegal immigrants tried to use a number of places in East Nusa Tenggara as a transit before crossing to Australia. "East Nusa Tenggara is an ideal place for illegal immigrants from other countries to Australia," Sili said. The illegal immigrants had been known trying to hide in small islands in East Nusa Tenggara, before they found fishing boats to be hired to carry them to Australia. But he said that now the and police have intensified patrol in the sea around the islands, giving little room for the illegal immigrants to escape detection. In 2012, the Kupang immigration office detained 414 illegal immigrants from Middle East all wanting to go to Australia. Sili said that in April this year, 79 illegal immigrants from the Middle East were stranded in the island of Rote, and some of them were evacuated to Kupang and accommodated at the Immigration Office detention house, although it was already overcapacity. "It is a new problem for us because the number of detention houses for the illegal immigrant was limited while the number of the illegal immigrant continues to increase," Sili Laba said. (*)