Bangladeshi Immigrants Stranded In Rote Ndao NTT Claim To Be Delivered By The Indonesian Nahkoda

A number of immigrants arrived at the port of the spread of Bolok, Kupang, NTT/ANTARA/Kornelis Kaha.

KUPANG - An immigrant from Bangladesh named Muhammad Manna admitted that a captain from Indonesia had escorted 44 immigrants from Bangladesah and Myanmar into the Indonesia-Australia border area. However, when they were arrested they were separated. "We were escorted by a man from Indonesia since departing from West Java on June 15, 2024," he said when met at the Kupang immigrant detention house (Rudenim), Antara, Friday, July 12. The story of his journey when the Head of the Regional Office of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights (Kemenkumham) East Nusa Tenggara Marciana D Jone made a working visit at the Kupang Rudenim to see firsthand the condition of the Immigrants. Manna said their trip from West Java to Australia took three days. And they were arrested by officials from the Australian Border Force (ABF) on June 18, 2024. A number of foreigners were then detained for 18 days on board the ship, then on July 7, 2024 they were given two units of ships made of viber base and then before being told to return to Indonesia, they were taught several hours to pilot the ship. He said that when they were arrested by ABF, they were then separated from the captain from Indonesia who they did not know the name of the captain. "We were separated by ABF after being arrested. After that, we don't know where the captain is anymore," he said, quoted from Antara, Friday, July 12. He said that previously in May 2024 they departed Malaysia using a wooden boat after previously getting offers through the TikTok application from an unknown agent. They traveled to Medan (Indonesia) and upon arrival in Medan there were already several Bangladeshi and several Myanmar foreigners. "I paid 50 thousand ringgit to the agent, via transfer and during that process we only connect by telephone," he said. Of the 44 foreigners, everyone has their own agents, and they are asked to pay varying and the highest is 50 thousand ringgit or equivalent to Rp. 172 million. After being in Medan, they were then taken to Jakarta, until early June they were taken to the southern part of West Java in preparation for departure to Australia. Muhammad Manna, who has worked in Malaysia for eight years, admitted that he and a number of his colleagues wanted to go to Australia with the aim of working in the country getting more money to meet economic needs. "Currently we are in Indonesia, we just want to return to Bangladesh," he said. Earlier on Monday, 44 foreigners from Bangladesh and Myanmar were found by residents stranded on the coast of Rote Ndao Regency. They use two ships.

After being stranded they were then secured by the Rote Ndao Police for three days and given clothes and food and drinks. And on Thursday (11/7) they were transferred to Kupang for further treatment.