Boat traffic flows freely with policy stuck in a jam

THE largest boatload of asylum-seekers to arrive since 2009, and the sixth in a week, has landed on Christmas Island.

asylum seekers

THE largest boatload of asylum-seekers to arrive since 2009, and the sixth in a week, has landed on Christmas Island, clear evidence the people-smuggling syndicates are taking full advantage of Australia's political impasse on combating the traffic.

HMAS Ararat intercepted the fishing boat carrying 167 people yesterday, as Home Affairs and Justice Minister Brendan O'Connor was in Jakarta discussing with senior Indonesian officials "new ways" of jointly targeting the syndicate bosses.

Handing over three new fast patrol boats in a $7.1 million project to bolster the Indonesian National Police's counter-people-smuggling efforts, he also flagged a gentler line on teenage boat crew detained in Australia. Mr O'Connor said Australian Federal Police and the Indonesian National Police were developing procedures to expedite decisions on legal age and to expedite the return home of juveniles without charge. "Australia has no desire to jail Indonesian children; our focus is on the organisers of people-smuggling activity, not the crew," he said.

The minister would not disclose what new measures against syndicate bosses and their agents were under discussion with the Indonesians, but "we'll be saying more about that in the near future". As 30 heat-distressed adults and children taken off yesterday's boat waited 45 minutes for transport from the Christmas Island jetty, the newcomers threatened once again to push the island's detention facilities beyond their "surge" capacity.

As of Monday night, there were 1235 asylum-seekers detained on the island in facilities built for 1244.

But yesterday's arrivals, and those apprehended on Friday and still in transit, add another 240 to the numbers.

Initial dockside checking by Customs and Border Protection officers showed a substantial number of young children among the 164 Middle Eastern passengers on yesterday's boat.

A teenage boy had difficulty moving his arms and legs and the Immigration Department thinks he has cerebral palsy, The Australian was told.

The presence of Palestinians and Syrians among the Iranians and Iraqis reinforces suspicions the people-smuggling syndicates are widening their customer base in a market that was until mid-year dominated by Afghan and Pakistani Hazaras, but is now overwhelmingly Iranian.

Associates of the prominent people-smuggler Sayed Abbas, detained by police in Jakarta since late August and being sought for extradition by Canberra, are suspected of organising the vessel.

Late Monday night another boat carrying 54 people - said to be Hazaras - and two crew was spotted about 50km west of WA's Dampier Peninsula.

As of last night the number of asylum-seekers to land in Australia this year stood at 3920, already the third-highest total on record. And almost one-third of the total has arrived in the past six weeks.

But Mr O'Connor yesterday refused to acknowledge the government's softer onshore processing procedures, announced on October 13, amounted to a "pull" factor.

The real damage, he argued, was caused by the High Court decision torpedoing the Gillard government's Malaysia Solution, and the Liberal-Nationals subsequently siding with the Greens to force the withdrawal of the legislation that would have legitimised offshore processing.

Mr O'Connor again demanded that Tony Abbott withdraw the opposition's embargo on the Malaysia legislation, and said the government stood ready to reintroduce the bill if it were persuaded it would pass.

Approaching the anniversary of the Christmas Island boat-wreck tragedy, he warned that the surge of boats raised the risk of another disaster. "It does concern me greatly that people are being lured on to vessels, particularly during the monsoonal period - this is of course a recipe for disaster," Mr O'Connor said.

Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison yesterday claimed it was clear the increasing traffic was caused by the government's decision to house asylum-seekers in the community and issue them with bridging visas with work rights.

But he denied the reverse had been true: that the announcement of the Malaysia Solution had been responsible for the fall in boats before September.

While Indonesian national police chief Timur Pradopo praised the Australian gift of patrol boats as a mark of faith in the policing relationship, another senior official warned that the force's maritime efforts remained severely constrained, with only 11 ocean-going vessels.

Additional reporting: Paige Taylor