A fisherman in Indonesia. Gilles Guerraz/Flickr. (CC 2.0 by-nc-nd)
On a balmy late afternoon in September 2014, I visit a hamlet on Rote Island in the province of Nusa Tenggara Timur, the southernmost edge in eastern Indonesia. Rote Island is located at the very geographic margin of the Indonesian archipelago: it is not just peripheral in regard to its geographic position, but also economically. I was pointed in Amir’s (not his real name) direction because he had twice served time in Australian jails for transporting asylum seekers to the Australian Ashmore Reef (80 miles from Rote). For his first trip in 2001, Amir was promised 20 million Indonesian rupiah, the equivalent of 3,800 Australian dollars that year (based on the average annual exchange rate). For his second trip in 2009 he was offered 35 million rupiah (AUD4,300 in 2009). The promised sum represented a fortune to him, compared to what he can usually earn as hired crew on a long fishing excursion over several weeks. Although he was unfamiliar with Australian laws on people smuggling, it clearly crossed his mind that there might be something wrong with the few days’ work required to take the asylum seekers to Ashmore Reef.
