Another boat with Lankans intercepted

24 July 2012 02:43 am Views - 3853

One boat carrying 123 passengers was found east of Christmas Island while the second sailed directly to Cocos Island from Sri Lanka with 36 people on board.

Passengers on the Sri Lankan boat will be flown to Christmas Island for processing, with two charter planes in the past week moving other asylum seekers from Cocos Island.

In just over three weeks this month, 1278 people have arrived on boats. In the past 10 days, the Immigration Department has spent almost $500,000 flying asylum seekers to detention centres around the country. More than 5100 asylum seekers have been flown off Christmas Island this year to prevent overcrowding.

One flight with Adagold Aviation between Christmas Island and Darwin cost $179,500, a government contract notice revealed. Another with company Alltrans between a detention centre at Curtin, near Derby in WA, and Perth cost $160,902 while an Adagold flight from Darwin to a detention centre at Scherger, near Weipa in North Queensland, cost $127,418. (Source: The Daily Telegraph)