Australia charges Indonesian people-smugglers

By CNN's Grant Holloway

CHRISTMAS ISLAND, Australia -- The Australian Federal Police have arrested four Indonesians on people-smuggling charges related to the boat-load of 433 asylum-seekers rescued by the Norwegian cargo ship Tampa.

The four people, aged between 17 and 31, were crew members of the Indonesian ferry KM Palapa which began sinking in Indonesian waters early last week.

Police said the four were each charged with an offence the Migration Act -- a crime which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years jail.

The four were not granted bail and an application will be made for the men to be remanded in custody to appear in the Perth Central Law Courts and the Children's Court for the juvenile on Tuesday next week.

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If found guilty of people smuggling, those arrested could also face fines of as much as $116,000 (A$220,000).

More than 300 people have been jailed in Australia for people smuggling since tough new laws were introduced in 1999.

Meanwhile, the cost of the asylum-seeker crisis to the Norwegian owners of the Tampa would be well over $15,000 a day, a company spokesman told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio.

“Obviously this has been of enormous cost to us and what we will have to do is investigate the avenues that we have for recovery,” Wallenius Wilhelmsen regional director Peter Dexter told ABC radio.

“That ($15,000 a day) would be a very conservative estimate because what we have also had to do is charter other ships to lift cargoes which this vessel could not lift.

Cost outweighed by principle

“So the snowball (effect) of this for an international shipping company is considerable. "

It is estimated Australia's standoff in the Indian Ocean has already cost the nation $10 million -- more than it would have cost to detain the asylum-seekers in Australian camps for more than a year.

However, Prime Minister John Howard says the cost of the operation was outweighed by the principle of the matter.

"There’s a very big issue of principle involved in this and I don’t think it ought to be assessed just on the cost considerations," Howard said Tuesday.

"That would be very short sighted and not the sort of thing a government should do."