Govt to blame for Emad escape: Abbott

The federal government is to blame for an alleged people smuggling kingpin being allowed to flee Australia a day after being exposed on national TV, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says.

The accused, known as Captain Emad, flew out of Melbourne on Tuesday after a damning documentary about him aired on Monday.

Australian Federal Police were alerted by an automated computer system when Emad moved through the airport, but were powerless to legally detain him, they said.

Mr Abbott says Labor governments led by Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd had slashed more than $200 million in funding from the AFP since the party came to power in 2007, and their policies had left the AFP’s hands tied.

“There is something wrong with our system, I don’t blame the police, I do blame the government,” Mr Abbott told the Nine Network on Friday.

“It is the government that is responsible for this problem, it is the government which created it, it’s the government which has failed to fix it.”

Mr Abbott said the Australian public was “flabbergasted” Emad was allowed to leave the country, and said Labor was in “absolute chaos” when it came to border protection.

“I think it’s very hard to take our government seriously when a computer can catch these guys but the government can’t,” he said.

Emad travelled to Australia from Indonesia on a people-smuggling boat in January 2010 and set up smuggling operations in Canberra after being granted asylum under a false name, the ABC’s Four Corners program said.

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