I'd say three months in the pokey and loss of their boat is punishment enough. I remember a National Geographic article of thirty or so years ago about them. Didn't know they were still around. It's made clear that they were only fishing where they shouldn't have been, albeit I wouldn't be surprised if these people did a little smuggling on the side. I find it difficult to believe these legendary, far-ranging seafarers could only speak their own obscure language however. The charter flight may have been necessary if they were operating out of one of the more far-flung islands of the vast Indonesian Archipelago. Perhaps there is some law requiring their repatriation or something.
There are accounts by early british naval explorers of encountering Malay (perhaps Bajo) shellfishing fleets who had been working the reefs and putting in regularly on the remote Northern Australian coast in this exact same area for water and provisions since ancient times. It was also Malay seafarers who first colonized Madagascar, the Comoros and the Maldives and who probably brought the dingo to Australia.
Thanks very much for your insights....things make a bit more sense now with this story.
As was mentioned earlier, I wish that there had been more detail to this story, because for me at least it serves to create more questions than it answers.
You are a virtual font of information.