Asylum-seeker interceptions highlight big boat strategy

PEOPLE-smugglers are cramming as many passengers as they can on asylum-seeker vessels, with two big boats intercepted overnight.

PEOPLE-smugglers are cramming as many passengers as they can on asylum-seeker vessels, despite the looming monsoon, with two big boats intercepted in Australian waters overnight.

The latest boats - one carrying 110 and the other 103 - reflect a shift towards bigger asylum-seeker shipments after Labor's Malaysia Solution policy failure.

Three other vessels have been intercepted in the past month carrying 90 passengers or more.

Asylum boats tended to be smaller before the government abandoned its Malaysian Solution, with just three carrying more than 100 passengers in the six months prior to the decision.

The latest boat arrivals come a fortnight before the first anniversary of last year's Christmas Island tragedy in which more than 50 asylum-seekers died.

Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor said the vessels were intercepted north and northeast of Christmas Island.

The monsoon season, in December and January, makes the voyage to Australia particularly treacherous.

The arrivals come ahead of this weekend's ALP National Conference, at which Immigration Minister Chris Bowen will propose boosting Australia's refugee intake from 13,750 to 20,000 a year in an attempt to revive his failed Malaysian people swap.

Under the deal, which immigration officials have touted as the best available deterrent to people-smugglers, Australia would accept 4000 already-processed refugees in return for sending 800 boat people to Kuala Lumpur.

The deal was scuttled in parliament in October after the High Court earlier ruled it invalid.