Tony Burke: People-smuggling boats are smaller, faster

‘It is the case that the big vessels you used to see years ago isn’t how the operation is being attempted these days, it’s smaller, faster boats that they’re trying,’ Tony Burke said.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has confirmed people-smugglers are using smaller and faster boats in a bid to evade detection, forcing the Australian Border Force to respond to the changing tactics.

People-smuggling efforts to Australia have ramped up – 2024 saw the largest number of unauthorised people try to enter Australia by boat since 2013 – and the ABF has previously acknowledged it had to change tactics.

Mr Burke said his department had prevented people-smugglers carrying unauthorised migrants from arriving and staying in the country. “It is the case that the big vessels that you used to see years ago isn’t how the operation is being attempted these days, it’s smaller, faster boats that they’re trying,” Mr Burke told the ABC’s Insiders program.

“The thing in common with our response is none of these ­attempts are successful: zero.

“But the attempts that are being made mean we’ve had to change some of our methods.

“Probably the most significant change in response these days is the majority of people now get sent straight back to their country of origin. So you used to really only see people going back to Indonesia or off to Nauru for processing, but the majority of cases now are going straight back to country of origin.

“We had one very recently where within 72 hours we had everybody back to their country of origin.”

Mr Burke declined to say from what countries these asylum-seekers were coming.

While boats have been able to get to Australia – one was detected in April this year in the Northern Territory – the government maintains the people-smuggling efforts had still not been successful, given they had not been allowed to settle in Australia.

In November 2023, the government was caught wrong-footed after 12 asylum-seekers had been dropped off at the remote Truscott air base between the far northern West Australian towns of Derby and Kununurra. This followed that change in tactics to use smaller, faster boats to make the crossing.

“Obviously it’s always in the political interests of my opponents to try to argue that somehow attempt equals success,” Mr Burke said. “They can attempt, and they’re attempting in different ways, but the success rate remains at zero; Operation Sov­ereign Borders continues to evolve as the threat changes and response changes.”

A 2024 Operation Sovereign Borders document, released under Freedom of Information laws, showed that at September 30 last year, 202 people had tried to come to Australia compared to 74 in 2023, 199 in 2022, none in 2021, eight in 2020, and 38 in 2019.