Border Force holds suspected asylum seeker group for over two weeks before sending back to Indonesia, authorities say
In short:
A group of 44 men attempting to reach Australia by boat in June were intercepted by Australian Border Force officials after three days at sea, according to Indonesian officials.
The men say they were held for 18 days before being sent back to the southern Indonesian island of Rote.
What's next?
The Department of Home Affairs is yet to respond to the claims reported by Indonesian authorities to the ABC.
A group of 44 men attempting to reach Australia from Java in June were intercepted by an Australian Border Force (ABF) vessel and sent back on two boats after being held onboard for up to 18 days, according to Indonesian authorities.
The men are mostly from Bangladesh, but also include eight ethnic Rohingyas. They were discovered on Indonesia's southernmost island of Rote by local police on Monday.
Rote's Police Chief Mardiono told the ABC the group flew to Jakarta from Malaysia in mid-June before boarding wooden fishing boats with Indonesian crew and departing from Java's southern coast.
They spent three days at sea attempting to reach Australian waters, after which they were intercepted by and held on the ABF vessel, according to police.
The men claim ABF officers then provided them with two aluminium boats equipped with supplies and sent them back to Indonesia near Rote island.
The ABC has not been able to independently verify the claims.
Second interception in one week
The group of men are now being processed by Indonesian immigration authorities.
In a video shared by police, one of the men, Muhammad Rohman, said the group was initially moved from their wooden boats to a large ABF vessel.
Mr Rohman told police he was part of a larger group of more than 70 people who paid up to $15,000 to agents who flew them from Malaysia to Jakarta in mid-June, and then organised wooden fishing boats crewed by Indonesians to take them to Australian waters.
"They gave us food and held us onboard for 19 days," the video shows him telling police.
"Then they woke us up and loaded us on to a small boat. Initially two men among us were called and taught how to operate the boat, and after 10 to 15 minutes of practising, the rest of us were called to board.
"The Australian government does not want us."
Their arrival in Rote island comes just over a week after another group of 28 suspected asylum seekers were found stranded on a boat in West Java.
According to Indonesia's Maritime Coordination Centre, the 23 Bangladeshis, four Chinese and one Indian citizen claim they were intercepted by an ABF crew near Christmas Island and detained onboard for 11 days before being provided with a speedboat to return to Indonesian waters.
Indonesian authorities have detained at least five separate groups of people this year seeking to go through the country to get to Australia by boat.
Another four boats have made it to Australia, including one in May that arrived on Christmas Island, two that arrived on the Western Australian coast and another in the Torres Strait.
A spokesperson for the Australian Border Force told ABC it did not confirm or comment on operational matters.