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Australian police escort the asylum seekers back to shore - Source: APTN -
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Three Indonesian men who appeared in a Perth court on Monday are among 55 people to be charged with people-smuggling offences since September last year.
The latest alleged people smugglers to appear in court were among seven Indonesians who crewed two boats, known to authorities as SIEV 51 and 52, which were carrying 148 people into Australia last month.
Perth Magistrates Court was told that Rustam Sugian, 52, and Andi Ali Sodikin, 25, were on board the SIEV 52 when it was intercepted by the Australian navy off Australia's northwest coast on September 12.
The boat was carrying 65 passengers and three crew.
Andre Arif, 27, is alleged to have been a crew member on board the SIEV 51, which was carrying 83 passengers and four crew when it was apprehended on the same day.
None of the men were required to plead when they appeared in court on Monday, and they were remanded in custody to appear again on November 5.
The four other Indonesians alleged to have crewed the boats appeared in the same court on Friday and were also remanded in custody ahead of further court hearings.
Australian Federal Police said on Monday that since September last year they had laid charges against a total of 55 people for "facilitating the bringing of (five or more) non-citizens into Australia".
Fifty-one of those people lived outside Australia, while four were alleged to be Australian-based organisers of people smuggling operations.
One of the four, dual Iraqi-Iranian citizen Hadi Ahmadi, became the only person to be handed over to Australia so far as an alleged people-smuggling organiser when he was extradited from Indonesia in May.
Ahmadi, 33, has pleaded not guilty to 21 counts of people smuggling relating to four boat arrivals to Australia in 2001.
The people smuggling charges carry a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment or a $220,000 fine.
