Peter Dutton warns as many as 14,000 Indonesian asylum seekers are waiting to get on boats

HOME Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has warned 14,000 asylum seekers are waiting to come to Australia after the first illegal boat reached our shores in four years. Mr Dutton blamed a surveillance failure for a foreign fishing trawler slipping through leaving up to a dozen Vietnamese asylum seekers on the run.

HOME Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has warned 14,000 asylum seekers are waiting to come to Australia, after the first illegal boat reached our shores in four years.

The first boat arrival in 1400 days, near Cape Kimberley, north of Cairns, came as the minister in charge, Mr Dutton, had been launching a leadership coup against Malcolm Turnbull.

It is an embarrassing breach in the so-called “ring of steel” around “Fortress Australia”.

There are now up to a dozen Vietnamese asylum seekers on the run in North Queensland, hiding in the Daintree Rainforest amid croc-infested mangroves as a major Border Force search operation is underway to track them down.

Two Vietnamese asylum seekers being led into a police van. Picture: Mark McCormack

They were all smiles despite being caught by police. Picture: Mark McCormack

While many were caught, there are still up to a dozen asylum seekers on the run. Picture: Marc McCormack

The first boat to arrive on Australian shores in 1400 days near Cape Kimberely. Picture: AFP

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Mr Dutton blamed a surveillance failure for the foreign fishing trawler slipping through the cracks — but he said it was a reminder of the scale of the asylum seeker arrivals that would recommence under Labor leader Bill Shorten.

“We know that there are 14,000 people in Indonesia waiting to get onto boats now,” he said. “We know that people will come out of Sri Lanka, out of Vietnam, out of the Middle East to hop on the boats.

“Clearly there’s been a failing when surveillance has not worked as it should in identifying this vessel or allowing this vessel to get as close to the coastline as it has, but we’ll work through all of that.”

Police have set-up check points around the Daintree Rainforest as they continue to search for asylum seekers on the run. Picture: Marc McCormack

Since the illegal fishing trawler sank on Sunday, 15 asylum seekers have been captured and will now be deported, while between two and 17 are still on the run in the Daintree rainforest.

Last night, a jumbo left Cairns airport to fly the group to Darwin detention centre for rendition back to Vietnam.

Daintree locals told how the sunken vessel appeared to have enough diesel, food and water supplies on board to travel as far south as Sydney.

Justin Ward was fishing with a friend when these two asylum seekers waved them down. Picture: Supplied

A group of asylum seekers boarded a plane bound for a Darwin detention centre where they will be sent back to Vietnam. Picture: Brendan Radke

Commercial angler Colin Patterson, who towed the stricken trawler to deeper water, said it had been deliberately scuttled in the mouth of the crocodile-infested Daintree River.

“It’s pretty shocking for Border Force that it can get all the way around the tip of Australia and down the east coast without being spotted,’’ Mr Patterson said.

“This was not an ordinary Indonesian fishing boat … it was set up purely as a people smuggling boat.’’