Indonesia - IOM Indonesia has published a new Manual for the Coordinated Handling of People Smuggling Interceptions, Investigations and Prosecutions in Indonesia for law enforcement and immigration officers.
 
The publication, which follows earlier editions published since 2009 and distributed to 40,000 officers country-wide, was funded by the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service.
 
Indonesia is a major transit country for the smuggling of asylum seekers en route to Australia. Over 12,000 have arrived in Australia by boat this year, most of whom transited through Indonesia on their journeys from Afghanistan, Iran, Sri Lanka and Myanmar.
 
“This manual will benefit to line officers responsible for the interception, investigation and prosecution of people smugglers (helping them) to act in a correct and professional manner,” said Indonesia’s Deputy National Police Chief General Nanan Sukarna.
 
“Often different agencies have found themselves arguing about rights and authorities when it comes to the handling and investigation of these cases. This manual eliminates the ambiguity about these issues and others, so we can focus on doing our jobs,” he added.
 
The manual has two companion publications, an operations booklet based on the manual and a pocket field guide for front line officers responding to interceptions of suspected smuggling ventures.
 
Ten thousand copies of the manual, 20,000 copies of the operational booklet and 100,000  pocketbooks will be distributed to prosecutors, police, immigration and corrections officials across the country.
 
The publications were prepared under IOM’s supervision, by a research team that included senior police and immigration officials, and academics from the criminology department of the University of Indonesia.
 
For more information please contact
 
Paul Dillon
IOM Jakarta
Email: pdillon@iom.int