Australian refugee groups demand answers on asylum-seeker boat

A refugee boat carrying an unknown number of asylum seekers was spotted off the northwest Australian coast on Monday.

He said he had been told the people were Vietnamese but that had not been confirmed.

Neither the Australian Maritime Authority nor Minister for Immigration Peter Dutton would comment.

“We do not discuss things in ways which would give comfort to the people smugglers”, he said.

The ABC reports that water police were called in to help locate the boat.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s hardline policies to stem the flow of asylum-seekers making the risky journey to Australia on boats has attracted opposition A man addresses the crowd at a rally protesting the Australian government’s treatment of Sri Lankam asylum-seekers in Sydney on July 7, 2014. “Has it been turned back to Vietnam, will these people be returned to Vietnam, and what will happen to them?” “This has been an iron law of this Government and I’m certainly not going to change it today”.

The Abbott government claims its tough stance on asylum seekers is responsible for “stopping the boats”.

In evidence to the inquiry, officials would not say if the group were asked if they had suffered torture or trauma before being sent back.

No one processed for asylum in Nauru or Papua New Guinea is eligible to be settled in Australia, even if they are found to be a genuine refugee, under the harsh policies introduced by Rudd and strengthened by the current conservative government.

Abbott would not reveal anything about the fate of the vessel or those on board, and repeated his determination to stop people coming to Australia “illegally by boat”.

He said of the 46 asylum seekers returned to Vietnam in April, the adults were reportedly detained and questioned.

“Discussions are happening now”, Mr Rintoul said. “The secrecy that the government seeks to impose on so-called “operational matter” is designed to prevent scrutiny of the abuse of asylum seekers’ human rights”.

“In this kind of turnback situation, the asylum seekers are being directly handed to those they are fleeing from”.