A small wooden boat that has been suspected of carrying and transporting asylum seekers has been sighted off the north-west coast of Australia.
A crew working for oil and gas producer Modec apparently spotted the vessel, within 500m of their floating oil tanker, about 150km (93 miles) from the Dampier coast. An official Modec spokesman stated that “a large number of people” appeared to be on the boat. If confirmed as asylum seekers, it would be the first “illegal” vessel entry into Australia since June 2014. At that time, around 157 people were intercepted about 16 nautical miles from Australia’s Christmas Island, in the Indian Ocean, and taken to the mainland.
Australia has adopted a number of measures to stop asylum seekers reaching Australia by boat.
Modec Australia country operations manager Gary Kennedy told the BBC the company had contacted Australian authorities about the boat, which appeared to be seaworthy. Neither the Australian Maritime Authority nor Minister for Immigration Peter Dutton remained available for comment.
