JAKARTA ~ Police have detained 27 Afghan migrants near a seaport in Java as they attempted to make their way to Australia.

“We… arrested them in the morning as they were having breakfast. No one escaped from the group,” local police chief Dwi Gunawan said on Tuesday.

He said that the all-male group had just arrived from nearby Sumatra island.

“We have brought them to the immigration office. The migrants were trying to go to Australia,” he said.

Indonesia is a key staging point for people smugglers taking Afghans and other nationals on the dangerous sea journey to Australia.