Third illegal boat arrival this week intercepted near Broome

The Albanese government is dealing with a third illegal boat arrival within a week after a vessel carrying four Vietnamese nationals was intercepted near Broome.

A boat carrying four Vietnamese nationals was intercepted by Australian authorities near Broome. Picture: Jason Edwards

The Albanese government is dealing with a third illegal boat ­arrival within a week after a vessel carrying four Vietnamese nationals was intercepted near the tourist and pearling town of Broome.

The intercept follows the discovery of a group of 33 asylum-seekers – thought to be from North Africa, Southeast Asia and the Middle East – on Christmas Island last week. Sources close to the response operation told The Australian the group’s boat had been destroyed in bad weather.

At the time, the Albanese government was trying to convince Papua New Guinea to take back Rwandans who arrived by boat on the Torres Strait Island of Saibai. Late on Monday, the group had been returned to PNG.

The Australian has been told aerial surveillance was immediately diverted from Cocos Islands to Christmas Island after the discovery of the 33 last week.

This was done in the event the vessel had travelled in convoy or was one of several dispatched by people-smugglers at the same time. The state of their boat made authorities suspect it may have not made the journey over the Java Trench under its own steam.

By Friday, the Australian Border Force was on the lookout for a larger and faster “mother ship” that could have brought the dilapidated boat close to Christmas Island before releasing it.

The group of 33 was moved to the Ocean Shield, an ABF vessel that spent the weekend off the Australian territory.

While additional ABF workers, including interpreters, arrived on Christmas Island last Thursday in response to the 33 arrivals, a boat carrying four Vietnamese people was already on its way to Broome on Western Australia’s Kimberley coast.

That vessel was intercepted before it made landfall, The Australian has been told.

The ABF has sent extra staff and resources to the Kimberley in response to what it considers a ­determined effort by smugglers to create a new business model by landing people on the mainland.

Smugglers got a boat close to the WA coast last September ­before it was intercepted and the passengers flown to Nauru. Last November, smugglers were successful in delivering one group of men to the shore close to the ­remote Truscott airbase between the port of Derby and the town of Kununurra. That airbase is ­mostly used by resource companies to refuel helicopters. The group was also flown to Nauru.

In February, smugglers delivered another group to the Dampier Peninsula, north of Broome. The men were found in two groups and told ABF they had deliberately camped for four days before seeking assistance. This led authorities to believe that smugglers had given this instruction to give themselves the best chance of getting their boat back into international waters without being ­detected.

In the past, smugglers sent the cheapest and slowest and most dangerous boats because they knew authorities would burn them on intercept.

By the time another 10 asylum-seekers reached Truscott airbase in April, there had been a permanent ABF and Australian Defence Force presence there since ­December. There had also been increased aerial surveillance, which made the arrival of yet another undetected boat puzzling.

That group of 10 was flown to Nauru. ABF has been building a rapport with Indigenous ranger groups on the Kimberley coast since it became clear that smugglers now consider Western Australia’s far north a place to land clients. The ABF values the ranger groups’ knowledge of the coastline and their regular presence in the most rugged and difficult to access areas.