Jakarta, IO – A group of Indonesian fishermen who were stranded off the coast of Western Australia last month will not be prosecuted by the Albanese administration. This is because the 11 men admitted that they were hit by cyclone Ilsa and never intended to cross Australian border.
“Regarding the fishermen involved in the incident, AFMA will not be prosecuting any fishery-related offences,” a spokesperson for the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) told the ABC, Wednesday (3/5).
Meanwhile, a commercial fisherman from Darwin, Grant Barker, said such stranded incidents were not unusual for him in his 20 years in the profession.
According to him, fishermen take a lot of risks by heading to tropical waters during the rainy season. He appealed to related parties to immediately find a solution so that similar incident can be prevented.
“We all have to come together, Australian border officers, the navy and commercial fishing industry,” Grant said.
The fisherfolk were found stranded on a remote island in Rowley Shoals, about 80 kilometers from the Kimberley coast by an Australian plane on patrol. They came by two motorboats, namely PM Dioskouri 01 and PM Putri Jaya.
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According to Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry (KKP), 10 fishermen from PM Dioskouri 01 and one from PM Putri Jaya were rescued while the other eight are still missing.
For six days they were adrift in the open sea without food or water. After being rescued, they were immediately taken to Broome Hospital for treatment. With the help of the Australian Border Force, they returned to Rote on Wednesday (28/4). (bp)