Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri The Coordinator 2015 Part 19-60-Caliphate-Refugee-11

C de Waart; CdW Intelligence to Rent [email protected] In Confidence

Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri The Coordinator 2015 Part 19-60-Caliphate-Refugee-11

The al-mustaminun, the asylum seeker, shall not carry weapons.

Migrant crisis explained in numbers Thu, November 26, 2015 A monthly record of 218,394 migrants and refugees reached Europe by sea in October, the UN says, almost as many as the total number of arrivals in 2014. We take a look at the shocking statistics facing the humanitarian crisis.

ISIS militants ARE posing as refugees to plot attacks in Europe warns German official. A GROWING number of migrants arriving in Europe are Islamic State (ISIS) militants plotting terrorist attacks, a senior German police official warned today.

A German right-wing party is calling on Chancellor Angela Merkel to go, amid criticism of her handling of the migrant crisis.

Eurosceptic “Alternative for Germany” – or AfD – has described the government’s approach as causing “asylum chaos.”

Tensions reached boiling point as Macedonian security forces began erecting a metal fence along the frontier.

As Europe’s worst migrant crisis since World War Two continues, the Macedonian government says it won’t seal off access to refugees fleeing war.

Angela Merkel holds surprise mini-summit in Brussels with nine EU countries willing to take large numbers after meeting resistance to mandatory sharing scheme

BRUSSELS - Leaders of the European Union aim to sign an agreement with Turkey in Brussels on Sunday that offers Ankara cash and closer ties with the EU in return for Turkish help in stemming the flow of migrant into Europe.Assad was quoted by state media as telling Ali Akbar Velayati, a top adviser to Iran's supreme leader, that the military support his country was getting from Iran and Russia had pushed the enemy states he did not name to "further escalate and increase financing and equipping of terrorists."

Nov 30, Months of European efforts to come up with common policies on mass immigration unravelled on Sunday when Germany led a “coalition of the willing” of nine EU countries taking in most refugees from the Middle East, splitting the union formally on the issues of mandatory refugee-sharing and funding. An unprecedented full EU summit with Turkey agreed a fragile pact aimed at stemming the flow of migrants to Europe via Turkey.But the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, frustrated by the resistance in Europe to her policies, also convened a separate mini-summit with seven other leaders to push a fast-track deal with the Turks and to press ahead with a new policy of taking in and sharing hundreds of thousands of refugees a year directly from Turkey.The surprise mini-summit suggested that Merkel has given up on trying to persuade her opponents, mostly in eastern Europe, to join a mandatory refugee-sharing scheme across the EU, although she is also expected to use the pro-quotas coalition to pressure the naysayers into joining later.Merkel’s ally on the new policy, Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European commission, said of the mini-summit: “This is a meeting of those states which are prepared to take in large numbers of refugees from Turkey legally.”

The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.–Winston Churchill

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But he added later that any such agreement would be voluntary and not binding, while the Dutch rejected German-led calls to resettle large numbers directly from Turkey.The frictions triggered by the split were instantly apparent. Donald Tusk, the president of the European council who chaired the full summit with Turkey, contradicted the mainly west European emphasis on seeing Ankara as the best hope of slowing the mass migration to Europe.

“Let us not be naive. Turkey is not the only key to solving the migration crisis,” said Tusk. “The most important one is our responsibility and duty to protect our external borders. We cannot outsource this obligation to any third country. I will repeat this again: without control on our external borders, Schengen will become history.”

He was referring to the 26-country free-travel zone in Europe, which is also in danger of unravelling under the strains of the migratory pressures and jihadist terrorism

ISIS militants ARE posing as refugees to plot attacks in Europe warns German officialA GROWING number of migrants arriving in Europe are Islamic State (ISIS) militants plotting terrorist attacks, a senior German police official warned today.By SELINA SYKES PUBLISHED: 10:22, Fri, Nov 27, 2015 | UPDATED: 11:32, Fri, Nov 27, 2015As the number of refugees entering Germany this year reached 950,000 police chief Hans-Georg Maasen said some men arriving as refugees have fought with ISIS and are planning a “combat mission” once they land in Europe. Authorities are aware of 7,900 Islamic radicals in Germany advocating violence and attempting to recruit refugees, according to Mr Maasen. He said his office receive one or two “fairly concrete tips" a week of planned terrorist activity, calling ISIS extremists “combat-hardened professionals” who are more dangerous than those from al-Qaida. But Mr Maasen said the refugee influx is not systematically used by extremists to sneak ISIS militants into Europe. Newly released figures show more than 950,000 asylum seekers have entered Germany this year so far - with the number of arrivals now expected to outnumber new births in Germany this year. The figures came as Germany’s European Union (EU) commissioner blamed his country’s “open door” policy for exacerbating Europe’s refugee crisis. Günther Oettinger branded Germany’s asylum policy as a “magnet” for refugees and called for a drastic U-turn on how to deal with the crisis. He said: “An amendment to the constitution would be necessary to change the asylum law. “As long as this is not addressed, there is really only one alternative: billions of aid for the refugee camps in Turkey and other countries.”

An amendment to the constitution would be necessary to change the asylum lawGünther Oettinger German interior minister Thomas de Maiziere called for the EU to impose a limit on how many refugees should be allowed into Europe as his country





struggles to cope with the surging influx. Mr de Maiziere demanded Europe to “commit itself to a final generous intake of refugees, one that is appropriate to the suffering of refugees”.Stricter security at borders has been introduced across Europe in the wake of the Paris attacks that killed 130 people after it emerged at least two of the terrorists posed as refugees to get into Europe.

A fake Syrian passport was found near the body of a suicide bomber who detonated his suicide vest near the Stade de France on November 13.

French and Greek officials confirmed the bomber’s fingerprints matched those of a man who had arrived on European shores on October 3 alongside desperate refugees who had crossed over from Turkey.

The revelation has intensified fears that ISIS extremists are passing themselves off as asylum seekers to get into the EU.

Fraudulent Syrian passports are regularly used on the migratory route from Turkey through Europe, with German officials estimating nearly a third of asylum seekers have falsely claimed they were Syria this year.Syrian passports have become particularly valuable as Balkan countries said they would only open their borders to people fleeing war-torn countries such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Start of Brightcove Player By use of this code snippet, I agree to the Brightcove Publisher T and C found at https://accounts.brightcove.com/en/terms-and-conditions/. This script tag will cause the Brightcove Players defined above it to be created as soonas the line is read by the browser. If you wish to have the player instantiated only afterthe rest of the HTML is processed and the page load is complete, remove the line. End of Brightcove Player Migrants from other countries such as Iran, Pakistan and Somalia have not been allowed to continue their journey across Europe, prompting protests on the Greek-Macedonian border. Clashes between police and refugees stranded at the Greek-Macedonian border have continued to escalate, with hundreds of migrants trying to force their way past police and army into Macedonia. Frustrated migrants threw rocks and bottles at Macedonian police, pulling apart razor wire marking the border between Greece and Macedonia.The Syrian refugee crisis has occupied people around the world and was a key issue in this fall's Canadian election.

Kiran Banerjee and Craig Damian Smith, two political science PhD students at the University of Toronto, are studying innovative ways to deal with the problem.Here's a look at a few of the more radical proposals Banerjee and Smith have considered.1. Set up 'special economic zones' in refugee camps"Refugees shouldn't be sitting idly and passively for years on end. We have to empower them until they can go home."- Alexander Betts, director of the Refugee Studies Centre at the University of Oxford

University of Toronto PhD student Kiran Banerjee is studying a variety of proposals for how to deal with the current refugee crisis. World-renowned refugee studies scholar Alexander Betts points out that 95 per cent of refugees find themselves in states bordering the conflict zones they've fled and without the right to work. He proposes creating special economic zones that would provide jobs, training and education.

"If we can't have integration, then we should be looking at camps as spaces of opportunity," says Betts.

He uses the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan as a good case example. About 83,000 Syrian The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.

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refugees live in this camp without the right to work. About 15 kilometres away, there's a special economic zone that has the capacity to employ 100,000 workers, but it's only at 10 percent capacity.

PhD student Craig Damian Smith is working with Banerjee on looking for workable solutions to the refugee problem. If Jordan would allow the refugees to work, it could benefit all involved. Betts points out that major multinational corporations such as Royal Dutch Shell, Sony and KFC have lost out on business in Syria because of the war and could benefit from the opportunity to temporarily relocate to a safe space in Jordan.

"To make this a win-win situation for refugees, businesses and host countries, we have to have clear ethical guidelines to make it compatible with human rights standards," says Betts.

While Betts admits it's not the perfect solution, he supports it because it moves us beyond the "tragic reality."

2. Drop the borders everywhere"Borders close off opportunities for people. Just by virtue of birth, people's life chances are determined." -- Joseph Carens, political science professor, University of TorontoJoseph Carens first proposed dropping all borders about 30 years ago with an article called "Aliens and Citizens: The Case for Open Borders." He argues that it is fundamentally unjust that a person's life chances and choices are pretty much determined randomly at birth, based on the country they happen to be born in. "When you grow up in a system, it seems natural to you," says Carens, who points out that the privilege of those born into the global north is analogous to the privilege nobles experienced under the feudal system.It seems natural, so people aren't eager to challenge it."The solution can be found in opening borders completely to people who want to move," says Carens. He recognizes that this is unlikely to happen. And given that unlikelihood, we have a special obligation to respond to the plight of refugees. "We have the responsibility for the life chances of everyone, because we've set up structures that determine what people's life chances are." Furthermore, he says wealthy nations must be willing to make sacrifices. "People who refuse refugees never think of what will happen to these people. The question is whether we're able to think beyond our own interests and have a commitment of solidarity with those in desperate need."

3. Welcome the stranger"The government needs to get out of the way and expedite the process."- Mary Jo Leddy, founder and director of Romero House in Toronto and adjunct professor at Regis College, University of TorontoFor the past 25 years, Mary Jo Leddy and her team of volunteers at Romero House in Toronto have been working directly with refugees and their families, providing temporary housing to more than 1,500 refugees who have made it to Canada. "If every neighborhood took one family and welcomed them into their existing community, that would be huge," says Leddy, a former Catholic nun. She says it's about going back to the basic moral principle of individuals and communities welcoming a stranger in need.

"When people feel welcome, they flourish," she says, but adds that red tape can bog down that deep-rooted instinct. "If every policy maker knew a few refugees, we'd have quite different policies. But when decisions become abstract from people's suffering, then the decisions they make are very often wrong."

She looks to Canada's acceptance of more than 50,000 refugees after the Vietnam war of a The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.

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shining example of what a country can do if there's political will. "Fill a plane full of immigration officers and then send them to Jordan and Turkey,

and then send plane back. That's what you do," says Leddy. "It's not rocket science."

Refugees could be fined or lose residency for failing to uphold Dutch valuesNewcomers told to be good neighbours and speak Dutch if they want to stay in Netherlands, as country adopts tougher approach on migration. 28 Nov 2015All non-EU newcomers to the Netherlands will now be forced to sign a declaration saying they will uphold Dutch values, or pay a fine of up to €1250 and have their residency revoked.These values include upholding people’s freedoms, being a good neighbour and participating in society – for example, speaking Dutch. The measures are part of a harder line on immigration in the Netherlands, which Lodewijk Asscher, social affairs minister, described as the “warm heart and cool head” approach. He wrote in a letter to Dutch MPs on Friday that the government was “committed to reducing the number of refugees” and acknowledged concerns about threats to jobs and houses, and about “which culture they bring along with them”. The measures come days after Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, warned that the “massive influx” of refugees threatens the fall of Europe. The Netherlands has suggested reducing the size of the Schengen open-border agreement with 26 countries in early November, and on January 1 2016, the country takes on the presidency of the EU.

Turkey putting Syrian refugees 'at serious risk of human rights abuse'Amnesty International says move by Turkish authorities to expel 80 Syrian refugees is in violation of international law. Dozens of Syrian refugees have been deported to Syria by the Turkish authorities, putting them at risk of serious human rights abuses, Amnesty International has said. The human rights group said about 80 Syrian refugees who were previously held at a detention centre in the Turkish city of Erzurum had been expelled in violation of the non-refoulement principle of international law, which bans countries from returning refugees to conflict zones where their lives are in danger.It said another 50 more Syrian refugees were being held at the EU-financed detention centre following their participation in peaceful protests against being banned from entering Greece in September, and all of them faced deportation. On Sunday the Turkish prime minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu, will attend a special summit in Brussels during which the EU hopes to finalise a deal for Turkey to help stem the large numbers of refugees and migrants that have been travelling through its territory on their way to Europe.

Migrant crisis: do Syrian refugees want to leave Turkey?Nov 29, Leaders from the European Union and Turkey will gather in Brussels on Sunday for a summit on the migration crisis. Tens of thousands of refugees and migrants have travelled through Turkey to Europe in 2015 so the EU will ask Turkey to better patrol its borders to stem the flow of migration. In return, Ankara wants €3bn (£2.11bn; $3.17bn) and concessions including allowing Turkish people to travel to Europe without visas.The BBC's Istanbul correspondent Mark Lowen reports.

Emre’s boat shop in central Izmir, one of Turkey’s main ports, you can’t turn around without bumping into a pile of inflatable rubber boats. On this day there are 16 stacked in beige boxes, all numbered with the same inscrutable code, SK-800PLY, and all newly delivered from China. If Emre’s maths is right, all of them will be discarded on a Greek





beach within a couple of days. For Emre’s shop is where you can buy boats that take refugees to Europe – and where they are still being sold at a rate of nearly a dozen a day. “In the summer we were selling more,” Emre tells a potential Syrian customer. “But right now we’re still selling six of the cheaper boats every day, and five of the more expensive ones. How many do you want?”

Turkey putting Syrian refugees 'at serious risk of human rights abuse'

European officials met with their Turkish counterparts on Sunday, in a bid to persuade Turkey to do more to stem Europe’s greatest wave of mass migration since the second world war. Despite the worsening weather, another 125,000 asylum seekers have arrived in Greece from Turkey in November – about four times as many as during the whole of 2014. And the biggest proportion probably passed through this quarter of Izmir.Smuggling happens in plain sight here – leave Emre’s shop, turn right up Fevzi Paşa boulevard, one of Izmir’s main drags, and the signs of the smuggling economy are everywhere. “On the left are the hotels where the smugglers house their clients,” says Abu Khalil, a smuggler who wanders down the street with the Guardian. “And on the right are the insurance shops.” This is where the passengers deposit their fees, which are then released to the smugglers when word comes that they have reached the Greek coast.Street vendors sit on the pavement, selling party balloons to refugees – not to celebrate with, but to act as watertight cases during the sea crossing. Many shops on the street now sell lifejackets, at least as a sideline. One kebab shop has a dozen for sale, including little ones for children, and there are even a couple in a shop that specialises in police uniforms. But it is the shoe and clothes shops that are really cashing in, with some now pushing lifejackets as their main product. “We only sell two or three pairs of shoes a day,” says one shop assistant on Fevzi Paşa boulevard. “But we’re still selling between 100 and 300 lifejackets. In the summer sometimes it was a thousand – the factories couldn’t keep up.”The blatant nature of the smuggling trade in Izmir has led the perception that Turkey turns a blind eye to illegal departures from its western shoreline. Turkey not only bars most





Syrians from legal work, giving them little incentive to remain in the country, but officials appear to do little to stop their movement. The hotels and shops near Fevzi Paşa boulevard are squeezed between two police stations that lie less than a kilometre apart – and yet police only sporadically respond to a phenomenon that occurs close to their doorstep.There is a similar sense of permissiveness in Çeşme, the coastal town west of Izmir that acts as the springboard for smuggling trips to the Greek island of Chios. Taxi drivers in Çeşme are wary of taking passengers to the departure points themselves, for fear of being arrested for smuggling, but on the approach to the beaches concerned the Guardian found they were unguarded and accessible to all. The Turkish government rejects these criticisms. It says police have arrested more than 200 major smugglers since 2014 and have turned back nearly 80,000 of their passengers – even as the country hosts about 2.2 million Syrian refugees, more than any other nation in the world. “At this point, we are doing everything in our power to stop the flow of refugees and prevent additional casualties,” said a Turkish government spokesman, in an email to the Guardian. “In our experience, however, the main issue is that refugees are willing to try again and again if they are caught.”

The refugees crisis on the Greek island of LerosThe numbers bear out this last point. The flow of refugees has fallen since October, when up to 10,000 were leaving for Greece every 24 hours, but it still remains high. After a few days’ lull due to bad weather, the daily departure rate almost hit the 5,000 mark again last week, according to Greek government data.

Smugglers say this is down to two things. “The main reason is the explosion of the war,” says Abu Khalil, the smuggler in Izmir, who is a Syrian Kurd. Like many others, he argues that recent Russian airstrikes in rebel-held parts of Syria have made the situation even less liveable.

The second factor is that those affected now also find it cheaper to leave. Two smugglers said the cost of a seat on an inflatable boat to Greece has fallen from $1,200 in September to $900 a fortnight ago, and finally $800 in recent days. “People who didn’t have the money before, they can come now,” says Abu Khalil, an Arabic pseudonym that means “Khalil’s father”.Some passengers, like the family of Alan Kurdi, start from Bodrum, a smaller Turkish resort town to the south, best known in Europe for its hotels and beaches. Others are driven all the way from Istanbul but it’s simpler to start from Izmir and Bodrum, which involve shorter drives to the places where the smugglers launch their boats. The beaches nearest Bodrum are the gateways to the Greek islands of Kos, Leros and Kalymnos. Those who end up in Chios, Samos and Lesbos – the choice is left to the smuggler, rather than the passenger – will have left from Istanbul or Izmir. The latter city is no stranger to refugees. In 1922, thousands of Izmir’s Greek residents fled to the harbour, after Turkish troops re-took the previously Greek-held city and a week-long fire burnt much of it down. For days, western ships moored just off the shore refused to rescue them.

Today, people find it far easier to leave the city. The warren of streets that surrounds Fevzi Paşa boulevard is full of brokers sidling up to scared Syrians, easily identifiable by their backpacks and apprehension, and offering them trips to Greece. Once a deal is struck, they are hustled into shabby hotels that the smugglers often block-book for this purpose. Late at night, the smugglers arrange for trucks and buses to drive them for a few hours through the darkness to the relevant shore. Sometimes this is a hellish trip that sees people squashed





into former cattle trucks. Sometimes the process is far less arduous and they just take public transport.Different smugglers describe different working practices, but each network operates in broadly the same way. There are the brokers, like Abu Khalil, who must find the 40 or 50 passengers needed to fill each boat and keep them entertained in the hotels until it is time to go. Then there are the drivers who bring them to the shore, and the workmen who deliver the rubber boats and engines and assemble them at the departure points.

If the network smuggles mainly Syrian passengers, then the network will likely be staffed by Syrians, usually working for a Syrian boss. But that boss will also need Turkish partners, such as the landowners who control the beaches from which the boats leave. Typically, these landowners will work with several networks and will take a significant cut of their profits. Their complicity is crucial to the smugglers’ success.“You can’t just leave from any place, so I would say the Turkish guy is the major player in

the process,” says Abu Khalil. “Without him, the trips would not take place.” A smuggler from another crew says his group rents beaches from several different landlords, to give themselves the options of sending people to several different Greek islands or changing locations at the last minute if the police suddenly arrive. “We keep an eye on the points, and once we see one is clear, we use it,”

says Mohamad, a Syrian smuggler. “Nothing is haphazard and everything is planned.”Each network makes vast profits, although their accounting differs from group to group. Mohamad sets out his accounts as follows: in peak season, a boat of 40 passengers paying $1,200 per person brought in a turnover of $48,000. The brokers would take between $75 and $300 of each payment, leaving at least $36,000 for the rest of the group. During the September peak, the most expensive boat cost $8,500 and the engines cost $4,000, although prices have since fallen. The mechanics and the driver collectively need another $4,000, while hotel rooms for the refugees collectively cost about $500 a night. The beach owners are paid in different ways but often charge a 15% levy on every passenger’s fee – meaning that they pocket about $6,000 per boat.

Trading in souls: inside the world of the people smugglers

At the end, the lead smuggler is left with at least $13,000. If he undercuts his brokers and also squeezes onboard another 10 passengers, he could end up doubling his profit, so many cram in 50 passengers rather than the promised 40, and send the boats out without enough fuel. Migrants who get cold feet on the beach sometimes report that they are forced onboard at gunpoint. But still, people keep coming. Despite the worsening weather, and despite the fallout from the Paris attacks, at least one of which is thought to have involved





someone who took a boat from Turkey, thousands are still leaving shores near Izmir every day.To Abu Khalil, it is obvious why. Most Syrians cannot work legally in Turkey, while the war is getting worse in Syria. “We know about what happened in Paris but we are desperate,” he says. “And we have no other option.” Abu Khalil would know. In the coming days, he will finally try to get to Europe himself.Additional reporting: Abdulsalam Dallal. Emre’s name has been changed

'How much?' Why bribes to people smugglers could revive a dying trade Beh Lih Yi in Pelabuhan Ratu, Indonesia Thursday 25 June 2015 02.15 BSTBusiness has been bad for Gandi, a fisherman who rides the waves off Indonesia’s rugged southern Java coast.The 44-year-old’s meagre catches are sometimes too small to cover the cost of the fuel he needs to power his 7.5-metre blue and white wooden boat. Added to that, a lucrative sideline in helping ferry asylum seekers for people smugglers has been all but snuffed out after a crackdown by the Indonesian authorities and their threats of arrest. But things may be about to change. “I could take them from here,” he says, gesturing at the dark sand beach fringed with palm trees and ramshackle, red-tiled huts used by the local fishermen. His sudden optimism comes after hearing the allegations that Australia paid members of a smuggling crew US$5,000 each to turn a boatload of asylum seekers back to Indonesia. The boat in question had reportedly set off from the port of Pelabuhan Ratu, close to Gandi’s village, last month and was stopped in international waters by the Australian navy. “How much is US$5,000 in rupiah?” Gandi asks. Told it is more than 30 times the amount he used to earn from ferrying migrants a short distance out to sea, his eyes light up. I need money. The money eclipses the fear, Gandi, fisherman

The father of three says he was “very scared” when he transported asylum seekers in the past, typically loading about 20 into his small boat in the dead of night – on one occasion nearly getting caught by the police. “But I need money,” he says. “The money eclipses the fear.” The rugged coastline of southern Java, where dense jungle rolls down to the beaches and colourful wooden fishing boats dot the shore, used to be a major staging ground for people smuggling.But the Australian prime minister Tony Abbott’s hardline policy of turning back asylum boats, helped by increased policing and campaigns to educate people about people smuggling in Indonesia, has largely stemmed the flow of boats. In Pelabuhan Ratu and the surrounding area, only 15 migrants bound for Australia have been arrested so far this year and one in 2014, a huge drop from nearly 1,000 reportedly detained in 2013. Pelabuhan Ratu is a day’s journey from the Australian territory of Christmas Island.But Indonesian immigration officials fear the allegations of payments for those who are caught trying to enter Australian waters could undermine the progress of the past two years by tempting more people to get involved in the trade.





Jakarta warns Australia over people smuggling 'bribery' claims

“This could become a headache for us,” says a senior local official, Irfan Sapari. “We have been trying our best to stop boat departures.” It is not just local officials who are annoyed but also the Indonesian government in Jakarta, which has angrily hit out at Australia and demanded an explanation after Abbott repeatedly refused to deny or confirm the payment.Indonesia’s foreign ministry has said that if confirmed, the payments would mark a “new low” in Australia’s handling of asylum seekers.Police in eastern Indonesia, where the boat carrying 65 mostly Sri Lankan asylum seekers came ashore late in May, have displayed stacks of cash they say was paid by Australia, describing the money as a “bribe”. The row risks becoming a serious diplomatic crisis, further straining ties between the neighbours that are already under pressure owing to the execution in April of two Australian drug smugglers. Critics fear that coastal settlements of Java could once again become targets for people smugglers, who have previously found recruits among the fishermen and villagers of the area who are fighting to survive on low incomes. The village of Cibangban, a short journey down the coast from Pelabuhan Ratu, is typical of the area, a collection of modest houses on a jungle-covered hillside that leads down to paddy fields and a palm-fringed beach, where boats struggle through crashing waves to reach land each morning.Up until a year ago, people smuggling agents used to regularly walk the beaches, fishermen and other villagers tell the Guardian, offering locals money to take migrants out to bigger vessels.These vessels were the ones that would carry the asylum seekers towards Australia but they were too big to leave port loaded with asylum seekers without attracting attention.The asylum seekers would be dropped off at night before being ferried out to sea and the agents would pay the fishermen on their return. Locals said they would be offered between 2 million rupiah (A$193, £95) and 10 million rupiah each time they took migrants out – more than they could normally earn in several weeks. Many claim they did not know





anything illegal was going on. “We didn’t know they were illegal migrants,” says Yus, a fisherman who goes by only one name and says he did not transport the asylum seekers himself. “The people who offered money said these passengers had been invited by Australia. “We only found out it is illegal to transport them after the authorities told us.”Asked whether he would risk taking migrants out after the alleged Australian payment, Yus hesitates then replies: “The police have warned us that we will be sent to jail immediately if we are caught transporting migrants.” Others say they would not take the risk but authorities are nevertheless concerned. Locals say smugglers offered up to 10 million rupiah to ferry asylum seekers to bigger vesselsA local fisheries official, Arip Gustia, tasked with educating the locals to “be a good fisherman” by not breaking the laws, admits he has a tough job. Catches are at their lowest level for three months and fishermen are tempted to find any way they can of earning money. Respected local figures have also been given the task of informing law enforcement agencies if they spot anything untoward. Under Indonesian laws, anyone found guilty of aiding people smuggling operations faces at least five years in jail and a fine. Even Gandi admits he found the trips harrowing on occasion, recalling how one group of women and children became hysterical as he took them through stormy waters to a waiting boat.I remember until today how they cried and screamed, how frightened they wereGandi “I remember until today how they cried and screamed, how frightened they were,” he says. “I helped a woman to hold her baby, only a few months old. She was so nervous.”Nevertheless he says he would be willing to transport asylum seekers again, as he earned so little as a fisherman. He returned from an overnight trip – many of the fishermen in the area work at night – on a recent Sunday morning and sold his catch for 75,000 rupiah (A$7, £4), not even enough to cover the 135,000 rupiah he spent on fuel. “I haven’t had any money to give to my wife for three days,” he says.




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Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri The Coordinator 2015 Part 19-60-Caliphate-Refugee-11