Another boat carrying 18 suspected asylum seekers was intercepted off north-west Australia.
Australia’s Customs and Border Protection said HMAS Armidale intercepted the vessel west of Christmas Island. The 18 passengers were transferred to Christmas Island for security, identity and health checks.
Meanwhile, the Refugee Council of Australia (RCA) expressed dismay at the Australian government’s short term plans on illegal immigration and called on the government to develop a detention policy that balances risk management with humane treatment, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
This is in response to the government’s plan for a $9.2 million, 1500-bed facility at an industrial site at Wickham Point, 35 kilometres south-east of Darwin.
The announcement brought to 4900 the number of beds Labor had added to detention facilities since the election. ''Labor has opened more beds in detention centres than they have in public hospitals … their only answer to more and more boats has been to open more and more beds,''
RCA chief executive, Paul Power said.
He added it showed Labor's plan for a regional processing centre in East Timor was ''clearly farcical''.
''The answer is not to spend even more money building large new detention centres,'' he said.