A group of Christian women and children who were returned to Vietnam by the Australian Government in 2015 are now seeking asylum in Indonesia, after a fleeing their home country for a second time in a bid to avoid persecution by Vietnamese authorities.
One of the told SBS News by phone that local fishermen rescued the group of 18, which included 12 children, after their boat broke down without anchor off the coast of Java on Friday.
The group had spent 12 days at sea, after leaving their home town of La Gi shortly after the Vietnamese New Year, known as Tet, in a small fishing boat without proper navigational equipment.
At least three of the women on board - Tran Thi Thanh Loan, Tran Thi Lua and Nguyen Thi Phuc - were among a group of 46 who were returned to Vietnam by the Australian Government in 2015.
Tran Thi Thanh Loan and children after losing an appeal on her case, July 2016. Source: Supplied
The original group of 46 were at sea for more than a month before being returned to Vietnamese authorities, a detail not revealed until a Senate estimates hearing in late May, 2015.
Some of those who were returned were later handed jail terms by Vietnamese authorities, who accused them of leaving the country without official approval.
The charges were brought despite Australian and local officials that they would not face retribution after their return in 2015.
Tran Thi Thanh Loan selling fruit in the market with her youngest daughter, in Binh Thuan province, August 2016. Source: Supplied
The commander of Operation Sovereign Borders, Major General Andrew Bottrell, that Australian officials had been given assurance from Hanoi that "there would not be any retribution for their illegal departure from Vietnam".
Judge Pham Thai Binh, who presided over the case in La Gi People’s Court, dismissed assertions that any such reassurance had been made in a criminal trial the following year.
Following the group’s arrival in Indonesia, the La Gi court issued an order for Loan to appear within the next seven days.
