People smugglers take advantage of weather

THREE boats carrying almost 250 asylum-seekers have arrived in 24 hours.

THREE boats carrying almost 250 asylum seekers have arrived in 24 hours in a clear sign people smugglers are capitalising on improved weather conditions and a policy gridlock to send a potential record number of boat people to Australia.

So far this year 1572 asylum-seekers have arrived by boat, despite atrocious weather conditions that have resulted in at least two shipwrecks and temporarily depressed the smuggling trade.

But with conditions in the Indian Ocean improving, there are concerns the most dire predictions of authorities could soon be realised.

Yesterday, Customs and Border Protection announced it had intercepted two boats, one carrying 98 passengers and two crew and a second carrying 96 passengers and two crew.

The two boats arrived just hours after a third vessel carrying 143 asylum seekers was intercepted off Christmas Island.

Some 865 asylum-seekers have arrived in nine boats in less than a fortnight, as the Christmas Island trade has resurged with the improvement of Indian Ocean conditions.

February's tally of arrivals is almost certain now to exceed the recent monthly peak of 892 passengers in 11 boats last November.

Another 11 boats brought 854 passengers in December before the December 17 sinking tragedy off East Java which cost an estimated 200 lives.

In addition, Indonesian police and immigration officials have intercepted at least 130 asylum-seekers this month.

In the past fortnight seas between the Java coast and Christmas Island have moderated and winds lightened.

Increased traffic was anticipated as conditions improved and smuggling operations tried to take advantage of what they are selling to customers as an open-door in Australia resulting from the political deadlock over offshore refugee processing.

The largest group of passengers to arrive so far this year, 143 people on Monday night, is rumoured to have been dispatched by a smuggler known as Syed Shahid, who first operated in the late 1990s but has been absent from the trade in recent years.

The arrivals triggered the usual political finger-pointing, but no sign of movement from either Labor or the Coalition, both of whom have been criticised for failing to come to terms and pass legislation that would restore offshore processing.