The 11 fishermen were trapped in Cyclone Ilsa and were managed to be found by the Australian authority through the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre (JRCC).
Marine Affairs and Fishery Ministry's Official Adin Nurawaluddin, through a statement issued on Sunday, explained that the 11 fishermen were known to came from two motorboats, namely PM Dioskouri 01 and PM Putri Jaya.
According to the received data, all 10 fishermen that were on the PM Dioskouri were managed to be rescued.
Meanwhile, on PM Putri Jaya, only one was managed to be rescued while the other eight fishermen have not been found.
After the condition of the 11 fishermen were declared to be stable by the Broome Hospital, they were then transferred to Darwin and were placed in the Northern Alternative Place of Detention (NAPOD) immigration detention at Frontier Darwin Hotel.
Afterwards, they will be repatriated to Indonesia using a charter flight with the Darwin-Denpasar route.
"With humanitarian consideration, the Australian government did not impose legal proceedings to the 11 Indonesian fishermen who were stranded in Australian territory due to a storm," he said.
"Thus, per Friday, at 4:40 p.m. WITA (Central Indonesian Time) they can be returned to Indonesia with the help from Australian Border Force," he added.
Next, Nurawaluddin explained that the repatriation for the 11 Indonesian fishermen can proceed well as a result of synergy and quick mobility between related institutions.
The repatriation will be facilitated by the Violation Handling Directorate at the Marine and Fishery Resources Monitoring Directorate General before being handed over to the East Nusa Tenggara Marine Affairs and Fishery Office.
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Translator: Sinta Ambarwati, Fadhli Ruhman
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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