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Kupang. Police have arrested 23 of the 44 illegal immigrants who escaped on Wednesday from a detention center in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, an official said on Friday.

The immigrants, who were allegedly planning to sail to Australia, broke out of the prison by scaling the wall, said Rindang Napitupulu, the provincial immigration chief. They were arrested with the help of the Kupang Police.

“We arrested the 23 people on Thursday and Friday,” Rindang told the Jakarta Globe.

“Six are known to have fled to Jakarta. We’re now looking for the 15 others at local seaports and airports.”

He declined to say where the immigrants were from, but another immigration official, I Gusti Ngurah Rai, said the 21 still at large included Afghanis, Iranians and Iraqis.

“The 21 people may have left for Australia using different boats,” he added. “Some witnesses said that seven migrants had rented a boat and left this morning to Australia.”

Meanwhile, police are looking into whether local human-smuggling rings are involved.

“The police are still holding seven of the immigrants for questioning,” Rindang said. “They’re believed to have links to the local syndicates.”

Rindang blamed the escape on overcrowding at the prison, saying there were only four guards to monitor hundreds of detainees.

“The guards could do little because of they were outnumbered, and the immigrants took advantage of this,” he said. The facility was built to accommodate 60 detainees, but until recently held more than 300.

Last week, officials had to transfer 144 of the detainees to detention centers elsewhere in the country due to the cramped conditions in Kupang.

“But we still have around 200 detainees, which is a figure we can’t cope with,” Rindang said.

Indonesia has been a key staging point for human smugglers who take migrants on the perilous sea journey south to Australia.

Australia’s political leaders, meanwhile, are trying to appear tough on border protection and immigration while campaigning for the Aug. 21 polls.

More than 1,000 immigrants from countries including Burma, Afghanistan, Iraq, Sri Lanka and Pakistan have been arrested in Indonesia since last November.