Confessions of a People-Smuggler

by Dawood Amiri
Confessions of a People-Smuggler
Author: Dawood Amiri
Publisher: Scribe Publications
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2014-09-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1925106098
GET BOOK

Annotation. Dawood Amiri is an ethnic Hazara who, in 2010, made the fateful decision to seek asylum in Australia. He arrived in Indonesia in 2010, and after various adventures and misadventures, was captured along with over 150 other refugees when he was about to board a boat headed for Christmas Island. After a long stint in detention, he escaped and began working for people-smugglers to raise money for his own passage and to help his fellow asylum-seekers. In six months, he organised more than 400 passengers for four different boats, but he never made it to Australia.Amiri was eventually arrested as a people-smuggler himself after having helped gather passengers for a boat that was recklessly overloaded by his bosses and sank en route to Christmas Island, with the loss of 96 lives.Among the dead were two of Amiri's best friends, that day, he 'swore at God'. He was sentenced to six years jail in Jakarta's Cipinang prison, while the kingpins, at the time, remained free. His story, despite appearances, is that of a man who considers himself humane and decent, who landed among thieves. It also provides surprising insights into the desperation of asylum-seekers and the economics of the highly organised people-smuggling industry, as well as the corruption that has enabled it.

The Criminalisation of People Smuggling in Indonesia and Australia

by Antje Missbach
The Criminalisation of People Smuggling in Indonesia and Australia
Author: Antje Missbach
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 200
Release: 2022-04-21
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000577287
GET BOOK

This book offers an ethnographically informed critique of the hyper-politicised debate on the facilitation of irregularised migration for people seeking asylum between Indonesia and Australia. While state authorities decry such facilitation as “people smuggling” and push for its criminalisation, the book’s focal points are the need for unsanctioned passages for people seeking asylum and the detrimental consequences of the criminalisation of “people smuggling” for both the facilitators and the people seeking asylum. Drawing on court verdicts and interviews with convicted facilitators and law enforcement officials in Indonesia, this book provides a unique and holistic picture of the causes, conditions, procedures and intricacies surrounding the facilitation of irregularised maritime journeys between Indonesia and Australia covering almost four decades. It scrutinises the micro-level operational and place-specific characteristics of people smuggling and the consequences of anti-people-smuggling policies in Indonesia and relates those consequences to changes in the macroenvironment, which include relevant legal, political, social and economic factors that determine the overarching conditions of irregularised mobility. Compared to other states in the Global North, Australia has claimed to be more “successful” with its comprehensive approach to eliminate unsanctioned migration at sea by combining punitive, communicative–reventive and interceptive measures. This book challenges key achievements and objectives in regard to criminalising the facilitation of irregularised migration by foregrounding the many negative side effects that have emanated from “stopping the boats”. The book will be of interest to researchers in the fields of anthropology and sociology, law and criminology, Asia-Pacific Studies, Southeast Asian Studies and international migration.

Asylum Policy, Boat People and Political Discourse

by Irial Glynn
Asylum Policy, Boat People and Political Discourse
Author: Irial Glynn
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 230
Release: 2016-06-11
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1137517336
GET BOOK

This book compares the policies of Australia and Italy towards boat people who have arrived in the two countries since the early 1990s. While the regular and varied inflow of immigrants arriving at national airports, ferry terminals and train stations is seldom witnessed by the public, the arrival of boat people is often played out in the media and consequently attracts disproportionate political and public attention. Both Australia and Italy faced similar dilemmas, but the nature of political debate on the issue, the types of strategies introduced, and the effects that policy changes had on boat people diverged considerably. This book argues that contrasting migration path dependencies, disparate political values within the Left, and varying international obligations best explain the different approaches taken by the two countries to boat people.

Urban Smuggler

by Andrew Pritchard
Urban Smuggler
Author: Andrew Pritchard
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 195
Release: 2011-03-04
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1845968638
GET BOOK

Urban Smuggler chronicles the rollicking life story of one of the most prolific smugglers of our time. After leaving school at 14, Andrew Pritchard started out selling weed at house parties before moving on to run some of the biggest warehouse raves of the acid-house era. The money began to roll in, but with it came trouble, and when someone was murdered at one of his parties he was forced to go on the run to Jamaica. It was there that Pritchard learned the tricks of the smuggling trade, and with corrupt UK Customs officers in his pocket it seemed that nothing could go wrong. But then someone in his network used his supply chain to start shifting industrial amounts of cocaine. When he went to meet a shipment of counterfeit cigars, he was seized by a Customs task force and arrested when the goods turned out to be half a ton of premium-grade cocaine. Following two controversial trials, Pritchard was acquitted after eighteen months on remand. In Urban Smuggler, he reveals just how easy it can be to import shiploads of contraband into the UK and exposes the corruption within the law-enforcement agencies tasked to tackle this kind of crime. Here, then, is the inside story of how to become an 'urban smuggler'.

American Radical

by Tamer Elnoury
American Radical
Author: Tamer Elnoury
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2018-09-04
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1101986174
GET BOOK

The explosive New York Times bestselling memoir of a Muslim American FBI agent fighting terror from the inside. A longtime undercover agent, Tamer Elnoury joined an elite counterterrorism unit after September 11, 2001. Its express purpose was to gain the trust of terrorists whose goals were to take out as many Americans in as public and devastating a way as possible. It was a furious race against the clock for Elnoury and his unit to stop them before they could implement their plans. Yet the techniques were as old as time: listen, record, and prove terrorist intent. It's no secret that federal agencies have waged a broad, global war against terror, through and after the war in Afghanistan. But for the first time, in this memoir, an active Muslim American federal agent reveals his experience infiltrating and bringing down a terror cell in North America. Due to his ongoing work for the FBI, Elnoury writes under a pseudonym. An Arabic-speaking Muslim American, a patriot, a hero: To many Americans, it will be a revelation that he and his team even existed, let alone the vital and dangerous work they have done keeping all Americans safe.

Shantaram

by Gregory David Roberts
Shantaram
Author: Gregory David Roberts
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Total Pages: 945
Release: 2004-10-13
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1429908270
GET BOOK

Based on his own extraordinary life, Gregory David Roberts’ Shantaram is a mesmerizing novel about a man on the run who becomes entangled within the underworld of contemporary Bombay—the basis for the Apple + TV series starring Charlie Hunnam. “It took me a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured.” An escaped convict with a false passport, Lin flees maximum security prison in Australia for the teeming streets of Bombay, where he can disappear. Accompanied by his guide and faithful friend, Prabaker, the two enter the city’s hidden society of beggars and gangsters, prostitutes and holy men, soldiers and actors, and Indians and exiles from other countries, who seek in this remarkable place what they cannot find elsewhere. As a hunted man without a home, family, or identity, Lin searches for love and meaning while running a clinic in one of the city’s poorest slums, and serving his apprenticeship in the dark arts of the Bombay mafia. The search leads him to war, prison torture, murder, and a series of enigmatic and bloody betrayals. The keys to unlock the mysteries and intrigues that bind Lin are held by two people. The first is Khader Khan: mafia godfather, criminal-philosopher-saint, and mentor to Lin in the underworld of the Golden City. The second is Karla: elusive, dangerous, and beautiful, whose passions are driven by secrets that torment her and yet give her a terrible power. Burning slums and five-star hotels, romantic love and prison agonies, criminal wars and Bollywood films, spiritual gurus and mujaheddin guerrillas—this huge novel has the world of human experience in its reach, and a passionate love for India at its heart.

Confessions of a People-Smuggler

by Dawood Amiri
Confessions of a People-Smuggler
Author: Dawood Amiri
Publisher: Scribe Publications
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2014-09-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 192511337X
GET BOOK

Dawood Amiri is an ethnic Hazara who, as a young man, made the fateful decision to flee the terror being inflicted on his people, and seek asylum in Australia. He arrived in Indonesia in 2010, but was eventually captured when he was about to board a boat headed for Christmas Island. After a long stint in detention, where immigration processes failed to help him, he escaped and began working for people-smugglers to aid his fellow asylum-seekers, and to raise money for his own passage to Australia. Amiri was eventually arrested as a people-smuggler himself, after having helped gather passengers for a boat that was recklessly overloaded by his bosses and sank en route to Christmas Island, with the loss of 96 lives. Among the dead were two of Amiri’s best friends; that day, he ‘swore at God’. He was sentenced to six years’ jail in Jakarta’s Cipinang prison, while the kingpins, at the time, remained free. A revelatory tale of compassion, love, sacrifice, and survival, Confessions of a People-Smuggler is a surprising insight into the desperation of asylum-seekers and the economics of the highly organised people-smuggling industry, as well as the corruption that has enabled it. PRAISE FOR DAWOOD AMIRI ‘[A] compelling memoir that offers insight into a fraught situation.’ The Sun-Herald ‘Kevin Rudd dubbed people like Dawood Amiri "the absolute scum of the earth". Now Amiri puts his side of the story. It's far different from the one our politicians would have us believe … What a pity such a decent and talented person who tried to help the desperate will probably never get to Australia himself.’ The Saturday Paper

Thai Stick

by Peter Maguire
Thai Stick
Author: Peter Maguire
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2013-11-19
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 0231161344
GET BOOK

Thailand’s capital, Krungtep, known as Bangkok to Westerners and “the City of Angels” to Thais, has been home to smugglers and adventurers since the late eighteenth century. During the 1970s, it became a modern Casablanca to a new generation of treasure seekers: from surfers looking to finance their endless summers to wide-eyed hippie true believers and lethal marauders leftover from the Vietnam War. Moving a shipment of Thai sticks from northeast Thailand farms to American consumers meant navigating one of the most complex smuggling channels in the history of the drug trade. Peter Maguire and Mike Ritter are the first historians to document this underground industry, the only record of its existence rooted in the fading memories of its elusive participants. Conducting hundreds of interviews with smugglers and law enforcement agents, the authors recount the buy, the delivery, the voyage home, and the product offload. They capture the eccentric personalities who transformed the Thai marijuana trade from a GI cottage industry into one of the world’s most lucrative commodities, unraveling a rare history from the smugglers’ perspective.