A people smuggler involved in the deaths of 96 people when a boat sank in 2012 is being financially supported in an Indonesian prison by his former clients.
Afghan Hazara man Dawood Amiri is sent money by a small group of his countrymen now living in Australia who are grateful that, as a smuggler, he helped them realise their dreams of a new life.
The revelation comes in Amiri's new memoir, Confessions of a People Smuggler, written from jail, which highlights the moral ambiguities of a trade that has been demonised in Australia for decades.
Amiri arrived in Indonesia in 2010, spent time in immigration detention, then turned to people smuggling to make ends meet. He became a mid-level operative in a large smuggling ring.
In June 2012, he helped arrange some of the 204 passengers aboard the Kaniva. But the overloaded boat sank 90 nautical miles from Christmas Island and 96 people died — an event that ultimately helped convince the Gillard government to reopen Nauru and Manus Island. Amiri was quickly arrested by Indonesian and Australian police and, eight months later, was sentenced to six years in prison.
On the eve of the book's release next week, Amiri told Fairfax Media from prison that he blamed greedy senior smugglers for the tragedy and that he remains devastated by his role: "I am still feeling it. I am feeling it most of the time".
A number of his friends were aboard the boat and died.
But that sinking aside, Amiri said he suffered no regrets about his work as a people smuggler, saying he offered a practical solution to the problems of people who were persecuted.
"For the bureaucrats or the politicians we are always evil people … but I think what I did was better [than the bureaucrats offer]. It was practical — helping rather than just comments and discussion."
Amiri has also admitted in the book that after being locked up, he continued to help arrange boats using an illegal mobile phone that he bought inside jail. Two ventures were successful, but another failed in May 2013 because Amiri was in solitary confinement in Jakarta's Cipinang prison (for owning a phone) and could not give the final order to proceed.
Amiri said he had stopped working after that. However, former clients then began paying his costs in prison, and helping his Indonesian wife and baby.
"If I need something some time, if I'm very much in need, I try to contact them and they do what I ask," Amiri said.
They want to help, he says, because, "they are grateful — they are very grateful".
Disclosure: Dawood Amiri is a regular contact of the author, who encouraged him to write his memoir and helped find him a publisher.
