Immigration officers detained 47 illegal migrants from Iraq and Iran at a hotel on an Indonesian island but the group escaped when the officers left to buy credit for their mobile phones, an immigration official said Wednesday.
Police on the eastern island of Flores launched an island-wide search, including patrols on nearby beaches, for the group of men, women and children.
The migrants were arrested at a hotel on Flores after their arrival on a flight from neighbouring Sulawesi aroused suspicions of airport officials, said Priyono, who accused them of overstaying their visas and violating Indonesian immigration laws.
The group told authorities they were heading to Australia, where they planned to seek asylum. Many were carrying U.N. papers indicating they would qualify, he added. But when immigration officers briefly left the hotel late Tuesday to buy credit for their mobile phones, they returned to find that all members of the group had fled.
They left their luggage and passports behind, he said, taking only a pile of life jackets with them.
Indonesia, a sprawling archipelagic nation made up of more than 17,000 islands, has long been a transit point for people from poor, often conflict-ridden countries.
In recent years, most migrants have come from Iraq or Afghanistan. They typically fly to Indonesia before continuing to Australia aboard cramped, barely seaworthy ships.
Source:http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5gk8DGieQ8lPZv2wzzJBr4wXqcirg
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