Suspected Asylum Seeker Boat Sighted Off West Australia

Mr Kennedy said the group on board the small boat had not tried to communicate directly with the Venture 11 but those on board appeared to be “in good health and good spirits”.

The Abbott government introduced the bright orange life rafts in 2014 in a controversial move to stem the flow of asylum boats making it to Australian shores.

One journalist asked whether the government was negotiating with Vietnam over returning the asylum seekers, and whether Border Force – which combines customs and immigration operations – had been questioned about how the boat snuck through a few weeks after the new department was announced.

There are reports the boat, sighted about 90 kilometres off Dampier, is carrying Vietnamese passengers including women and children.

The fishing boat was spotted at first light on Monday by workers for contractors Modec, who were on a tanker servicing an oil rig about 78 nautical miles, or 150km, offshore from Dampier, which is about 1,500km north of Perth.

“If it is safe to do so and we have met our worldwide obligations and we don’t owe people protection, then those people will go back to their country of origin”, Dutton told reporters.

Police assisting in the intervention of a suspected asylum seeker boat off Western Australia’s northwest coast have returned to port.

She said Australian members of the support network were communicating with Vietnam-based contacts of the refugees.

If the vessel is confirmed to be an asylum seeker boat, it would be a blow to the Abbott government’s claims its tough stance on asylum seekers is “stopping the boats”.

Human rights lawyer George Newhouse expressed his concern to Anadolu Agency on Tuesday that the government will return the asylum seekers to Vietnam. “Discussions are happening now”, he said.

Abbott defended his policies, under which any asylum-seekers who do arrive on unauthorised boats are denied resettlement in the country and sent instead to camps at Nauru or Papua New Guinea in the Pacific.

Last month, migrants headed to Australia told the UN the crew on their boat was paid by the Australian navy to turn back to Indonesia.