By CAMERON LUCADOU-WELLS
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AN Afghan community leader has labelled local people smuggling as a problem that was getting “fatter and fatter”.
Khaliq Fazal, president of the Dandenong-based Afghan Australian Association of Victoria, said he had made claims of internationally linked people-smuggling rings to the federal Department of Immigration “on many occasions”.
“It’s a big mafia involving people in Iraq, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia.
“It feeds people smuggling from the other side and the problem is getting fatter and fatter.
“You can feel or sense it. How many boats have arrived since May? Who are the ones sponsoring them? Who are encouraging them to take these boats?”
He criticised the efforts of federal agencies to quash people smuggling. “I would call it an investigation when I see positive results,” he said.
Last Monday’s Four Corners program on ABCTV revealed links to an Australian-based people-smuggling racket in Greater Dandenong.
It claimed $8850 was paid by relatives of an asylum seeker to a Dandenong grocer in November 2010.
He passed on the cash to a Noble Park man, who is alleged to have been an agent for people smugglers.
The boat carrying the Iranian asylum seeker, with 96 other passengers, disappeared without trace between Indonesia and Christmas Island.
A statement from the Australian Federal Police said 14 alleged organisers had been arrested since September 2008. Four were arrested last March.
It said the AFP had “a number of significant investigations” targeting organisers and people involved in people smuggling.
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