A boatload of twelve people arrived undetected on remote Western Australian shores on Thursday night.
7News reported that these men from Bangladesh and Pakistan told the local community they were dropped off by an Indonesian boat.
The boat from Indonesia arrived near the Anjo Peninsula in Western Australia’s remote north-east as per ABC report.
The Indonesian boat that is presumed to have dropped these twelve people has disappeared from the Australian coast.
According to The Australian, it is yet not clear if these people are asylum seekers or fishermen!
It is further reported that these people were “not in good shape” and were rescued by the local Indigenous community, the Wunambal Gaambera people.
Wyndham East Kimberley Shire president David Menzel told WA Today he is not surprised as illegal fishing vessels have been spotted earlier too.
“It’s certainly not a surprise to us. We’ve been advocating for a bit more attention on our coastline.”
Senator James Paterson, Liberal leader and Shadow Home Affairs Minister, said in a statement that these reports of illegal boat arrival were “alarming.”
“Reports of an illegal maritime arrival in northern Western Australia is a further sign that Labor has failed on border security.”
This is the 10th illegal boat to arrive in Australia since the new government was elected in May 2022.
Labor Party has maintained the core elements of Operation Sovereign Borders including: offshore detention, boat turnbacks and take backs where safe to do so, and a ban on refugees or asylum seekers who arrived after 2013 settling in Australia.
The eight people were later arrested by police who flew from the Aboriginal community of Kalumburu to the Truscott air base near where the group was rescued.
Four people were missing in the extremely remote part of the country where the nearest settlement is three hours away.
The Australian Border Force does not comment on operational matters.
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