People smuggler claims SOS calls can get asylum seekers to Christmas Island

Secret film shows people smuggler referring to asylum seekers as 'goats' and claiming Indonesian police involvement
Link to video: People smuggler boasts of Indonesian police involvement

A self-confessed people smuggler has admitted that boats carrying asylum seekers are instructed to send out SOS calls to Christmas Island to make sure they are picked up while referring to the people who pay him thousands of dollars for the voyage as "goats".

A joint investigation between Fairfax Media and the ABC has uncovered a video of a man who calls himself Freddy Ambon discussing his strategies for successfully getting asylum seeker boats to Christmas Island, claiming the Indonesian police are in cahoots with him.

"And then the police headquarters, the police HQ, will escort the boat," he says in the recording made in an Indonesian apartment.

"... I'm a former policeman, don't ask which unit, I'm a former policeman, this is just for you to know but this means there is no problem bro.

"No problem, no problem, no problem, the passengers will get through."

Ambon said all people smugglers needed was "good co-ordination" to depart Indonesia and head for Christmas Island which is reportedly code for bribery.

"The boat will first go to Labuhan, then the people, the goats, are in Mediterania (a Jakarta suburb) or elsewhere then my men will pick them up," he said, charting the course he sends asylum seekers on.

Ambon charges between $5000 and $6000 per asylum seeker for the journey and admits he helped organise the passage of a boat which sank last year with more than 200 people on board, killing 96 people a few miles from Christmas Island.

He says he is happy to send boats with just 50 people on board and thought the boat was overloaded at the time.

He also admits to instructing the boats to send out distress calls once they are in Christmas Island waters.

"Satellite phones. The captain has one and I have one, so when they're still on their way … the captain calls the police on Christmas Island and asks to be picked up … we don't wait until they arrive before calling in the emergency," he said.

"Save our Souls! SOS! Save Our Souls! … then the police come and rescue."

Indonesian authorities have denied the allegations of bribery or that police would turn a blind eye to asylum seeker boats leaving harbours.

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