Australia Turns Back Two Boatloads of Illegal Immigrants

For the second time in two weeks Australia has turned back a boatload of illegal migrants, forcing the intended asylum seekers to return to Indonesia. Sky News has the story.

The group of 44 asylum seekers landed on the remote Indonesian island of Rote Ndao on Monday, several weeks after they were intercepted en route to Australia.

According to local authorities, the group of 36 Bangladeshi and eight Rohingya asylum seekers were intercepted while trying to reach Australia from West Java’s southern coast but were intercepted by the Australian Broder Force (ABF).

They were detained in their vessel for 18 days before being provided with two modern speed boats, each equipped with just enough fuel, food and water for 22 people to make the trip to Rote Ndao – 286km from Australia’s Ashmore Reef.

Rote Ndao Police Chief Mardiono told the Australian the group had run out of almost all their supplies when they arrived on his island.

“They beached the boats when they see land because they’ve run out of fuel. When we checked the boats, they’ve run out of everything so they had no other choice than to land. I think (Australian authorities) have calculated how much fuel they need to get here,” he said. …

The 44 men on Rote are now being processed by Indonesian immigration authorities since police found no indication that they were smugglers themselves.

They are the second group of asylum seekers the Australian Government has reportedly provided with boats and told them to head back to Indonesia in as many weeks.

On June 30th it was revealed that a group of 28 asylum seekers and two boat crew had been given a speedboat and told to travel back to Indonesia after Australian authorities seized and destroyed their original vessel.

Now, that’s how you do it. If Labour wants to neutralise the threat from Reform and stay in power for a decade, it could a lot worse than starting with this. But it won’t, of course.

Worth reading in full.