Asylum-seekers: fishing boat intercepted off Cocos Islands

A suspected asylum-seeker boat spotted by ferry passengers has been intercepted off the coast of the Cocos Islands.

The fishing boat suspected to be carrying asylum-seekers was spotted by a Cocos Island ferry.

A suspected asylum-seeker boat has been intercepted off the coast of Australia’s Cocos Islands, as Immigration Minister Peter Dutton vented his “anger” at refugee activists he accuses of encouraging self-immolations on Nauru.

The fishing boat was spotted by a Cocos Island ferry and intercepted by authorities on Monday.

It is the first suspected asylum vessel to sail within sight of Australia since at least November.

Awie Rasa, a ferry passenger that day, said he was sure the blue and yellow boat was an asylum vessel like the many he had seen during 17 years as a ferry captain on the Indian Ocean outpost.

“Huzaifah (a deckhand) said ‘Look, there’s an asylum-seekers’ boat’ and I was like ‘Yeah, that’s right’. And I pointed out to a few of the passengers: ‘Look, asylum-seekers; they started again’,” he told The Australian.

Mr Rasa said the boat passed the ferry within “a couple of hundred metres” at about 27km/h. There was an outline of a man in the wheelhouse, and he presumed passengers were below deck.

The boat was intercepted by a white police boat and taken to ­officers waiting at a jetty on the Cocos’ West Island.

“They took off fast in their boat,” Mr Rasa said. “I don’t know what happened after that because everything is so secret.”

Mr Dutton, whose office dec­lined to comment on “on-water matters”, vented his “anger and frustration” at refugee activists after a second refugee — a 21-year-old Somali woman, Hadon — was evacuated to Brisbane with self-inflicted life-threatening burns.

The protest came only three days after a 23-year-old Iranian man, Omid, was pronounced dead in Brisbane after setting himself alight in protest on the ­island last week. Omid’s death is being investigated by the Queensland Coroner.

“We do of course hope for the best possible outcome (for the woman), but it is a dire situation,” Mr Dutton said.

The minister accused refugee activists of privately and publicly encouraging asylum-seekers to revolt on the island, peddling “false hope” that it would pressure the government to change its hardline policies.

“The behaviours have intensified in recent times and, as we see, they have now turned to extreme acts with terrible consequences,” Mr Dutton said.

“It is of grave concern that this person would resort to such an extreme act of self-harm.”

Mr Dutton said the government had intelligence that Australians working on Nauru were involved in encouraging dissent.

The Refugee Action Coalition, a prominent advocacy group with close ties to asylum-seekers on Nauru, accused the government of “playing a dangerous game with the lives of asylum-seekers and refugees” on the island.

“Peter Dutton does not have a shred of evidence that advocates encourage refugees to self-harm,” spokesman Ian Rintoul said.

“This is the same line Scott Morrison tried about the Save the Children workers (who were expelled from Nauru) in 2014 and that was shown to be completely false.

“But Dutton has learned nothing. His dismissive attitude to the distress of the asylum-seekers and refugees on Nauru will only put more people at risk.”

A former director of offshore processing under the Gillard and the second Rudd governments, Greg Lake, said that he had long been concerned by the nat­ure of the exchanges between asylum-seekers and advocates who treated incidents of self- harm as an opportunity to make a political point.

Mr Lake, who quit his role after a personal struggle with the concept of offshore processing, has previously been blasted by refugee advocates for claiming that some “coached” asylum-seekers.

He said he did not object to advocates giving asylum-seekers hope.

“It never surprises me when certain advocates come out very quickly after an incident with extraordinary detail,” he said.

“Clearly, they are intimately involved and engaged with the asylum-seekers.”

Nirmal Dewasiri, a specialist in social transformation at Colombo University, said the factors that would lead Sri Lankans to get on a boat for a treacherous journey to Australia were more often economic than political.

“Australia had a heavy advertising campaign in Sri Lanka to discourage illegal migration,” he said.

“When they come across frequent news that people are captured and then sent to a remote island — I think that is discouragement.”

However, he added: “There is always an enterprising group of people who are willing to take a risk.”

ADDITIONAL REPORTING: GREG BEARUP