http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25716137-25837,00.html
Peter Woolcott to talk to Indonesia Mark Dodd | July 01, 2009 Article from: The Australian CANBERRA'S new ambassador for people-smuggling, Peter Woolcott, will travel to Jakarta on Sunday for talks with Indonesian officials on ways to combat a spike in asylum-seekers. On Sunday, a boat carrying 194 asylum-seekers, understood to be mostly Sri Lankan ethnic Tamils, docked at Christmas Island -- the biggest number of unauthorised migrants to arrive this year. The UN's International Organisation for Migration yesterday questioned reports that up to 10,000 Malaysian-based asylum-seekers were preparing to depart for Australia via the Indonesian archipelago. An IOM spokesman said that, while Malaysia was a well-known transit stop along the people-smuggling route from the Middle East for destinations such as Indonesia and Australia, local authorities had been tightening border protection. Actual numbers of boatpeople heading to Australia were low by world standards, with 96 per cent of Afghans, 97 per cent of Iraqis and 82 per cent of Sri Lankans preferring Europe, Immigration Minister Chris Evans said. A total of 16 asylum-seeker boats have been intercepted in Australian waters so far this year carrying a total of 825 passengers and 35 foreign crew. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
