Source : Perth Now news
A mother and daughter schemed to smuggle their partners across Australia after the men breached the country’s strict border defences.
The women’s partners were among 15 people smuggled into Australia on an Indonesian boat that landed on WA’s Kimberley coast two years ago.
The fishing boat’s arrival sparked a national debate about border security and people smuggling, forcing Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to dismiss concerns that border protection activities had been diluted.
One Chinese national became separated from the group of asylum seekers but was located by authorities on a dirt track not far from the Mungalalu-Truscott air base.
Chinese nationals Hong Shuyan, 56, and Zhang Zhongfang, 34, pleaded guilty to conspiring to harbour unlawful non-citizens over their April 2024 plot to collect their partners from the remote landing area and transport them to Sydney.
They paid fellow Chinese national Sun Shuai to drive a hired van thousands of kilometres to the remote WA location, midway between Broome and Darwin, and then back to NSW.
The 29-year-old admitted to harbouring unlawful non-citizens over his role in the plan to smuggle the men across state lines and avoid detection by authorities.
He was accompanied by Hong and the trip was funded by Zhang, a NSW District Court was told on Tuesday.
The trio used Chinese messaging platform WeChat to stay in constant contact about their movements and plans.
When they learned several unlawful maritime arrivals had been detained by border force officers, the court was told they panicked.
“We’re screwed,” one WeChat message read.
They left Broome without meeting or collecting their targets, although contact was established through multiple phone calls.
“This was an isolated one-off incident,” Judge Mark Williams said.
“It was an unsophisticated plan with a great risk of failure and detection”.
But he said failure to succeed didn’t make the offending any less serious.
The judge emphasised the threat people smuggling poses to law and order, the financial burden it imposes on public resources, and the lives it risks.
“Unlawful entry into Australia is a scourge on society,” he told the court.
He said Hong and Zhang – both temporary visa holders – had been motivated by their desire to reconnect with their partners, whose visa applications had been rejected.
The “naive and gullible” Sun had a financial incentive, Judge Williams found.
All three had expressed remorse for their actions and were unlikely to reoffend, the court was told.
Judge Williams sentenced each to a three-year suspended jail sentence and ordered them to be of good behaviour.
The trio did not react as their sentences were delivered.
Under Australia’s strict maritime border policy, anyone who arrives by sea without a valid visa is permanently barred from settling in the country.
People are either sent back to their country of origin or sent to the offshore processing centre at Naoero (formerly known as Nauru).
In the past four years, 51 boats carrying over 700 people have been intercepted at sea by Australian authorities.
