‘No passports, no visas’: Australians detained after mysterious South Papua flight

Singapore/Jakarta: An Australian supposedly linked to a drug case and another on parole have been detained in South Papua after flying from far north Queensland without passports or visas, Indonesian officials say.

The two were apprehended on November 17 along with the Australian pilot and an Indonesian citizen in the town of Merauke, the administrative capital of the Indonesian province.

The plane had first departed from Cairns in North Queensland and – after a stop in the North Queensland town of Coen - flew to Merauke in South Papua, Indonesian authorities said.Credit: iStock

Zulhamsyah Sianturi, the head of the Merauke immigration office, also alleged that officials discovered .82 grams of methamphetamine – below Indonesia’s five-gram threshold for consideration of the death penalty – stowed on the plane.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed on Thursday evening that it was providing consular assistance to one of the three detained Australians.

“We are aware of two other Australians detained in Merauke and stand ready to offer consular assistance to any Australian citizen, should it be requested,” a spokesperson said.

The area is politically sensitive to Indonesia because of an ongoing Papuan separatist movement.

Sianturi told this masthead that two of the men did not have passports or a visa, “so it is illegal”.

“By co-ordinating with the Australian embassy, we knew that one was on parole and the other one was involved in a drug case,” Sianturi told this masthead.

“Although that one person was on parole, he should not have been near an airport, the embassy told us.”

Little is known about the three Australians or their motives for flying to South Papua. The case has now caught the attention of immigration headquarters in Jakarta, which was sending investigators on Friday, Sianturi said.

He said the plane had first departed from Cairns, then picked up two Australian passengers in a town he believed was spelled “Con”.

Flight records show that at 6am on November 17, a twin-engine Piper left Cairns for Coen, a small Queensland community 400 kilometres to the north.

The same plane then left Coen at 8.45am and landed in Merauke about 2 ½ hours later.

Records show the Piper was registered to a company in Queensland, which told this masthead on Thursday night it had sold the plane several months ago.

Sianturi said the four detained people remained in Merauke.

In 2008, five Australians were detained for nine months after arriving in Merauke for the relatively minor offence of not having visas or special clearance for the sensitive region. They came to be known as the Merauke Five.

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