Boat full of suspected Tamils reaches Australia

9 April 2013 10:28 am Views - 4456

A fishing boat packed with 66 potential asylum-seekers, suspected to be mainly Tamils from Sri Lanka, evaded detection and sailed in to a busy port on the Australian mainland today, officials said.

The vessel was seen within the harbor limits of Geraldton in Western Australia, more than 2,000 kilometers south of Australia's Indian Ocean territory of Christmas Island where such boats are usually intercepted.

The West Australian newspaper said the boat, with men, women and children on board, was from Sri Lanka and had been at sea for more than six weeks before arriving at the port 425 km north of Perth, AFP reports.

Western Australia Premier Colin Barnett said he was “alarmed’’ that a boat could make it undetected to Geraldton, one of Australia's busiest regional ports and the country's second-largest for grain exports.

“This is a serious, unprecedented and unacceptable breach of Australia's border security,'' Barnett said. “That a boat, laden with people, can sail into a busy regional port in broad daylight is shocking.''

Australia is facing a steady influx of asylum-seekers arriving by boat, many of whom use Indonesia as a transit hub. They pay people-smugglers for passage on leaky wooden vessels after fleeing their home countries.