Thirteen Iraqis have been stopped and turned back mid-ocean as they tried to enter Australia by small boat from Indonesia.
Canberra made the decision to order them back to their point of departure Sunday, according to a local police chief in the South-East Asian nation’s southernmost province.
The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) reports the attempted entry took place in north-west Australian waters at Ashmore Reef, 600 kilometres north of Broome. The stoppage and repatriation was carried out by officers from the Australian Border Force patrolling the area.
The original vessel was seized, the crew told Indonesian police, and the passengers and crew were returned to Indonesia on a different boat, the SMH report sets out.
They were taken to a local police station after initially arriving at Rote island on Wednesday.
“The information is that [the wooden boat] was held back by the Australian customs,” Rote Ndao police chief I Nyoman Putra Sandita said.
He said according to one of the Iraqis on board, the group left Iraq on November 11 and travelled to Jakarta and Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi province, before heading to Rote Ndao, from where they departed for Australia.
Their return was in keeping with Australia’s policy of never allowing migrants to land to claim asylum.
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Police said there were six women and three children on the boat, the youngest a one-year-old boy.
Australian Border Force was contacted for comment by the SMH, but the government agency does not confirm maritime patrol operations until weeks later, in monthly reports published online.
According to those reports, a boat has not been intercepted from Indonesia under Operation Sovereign Borders since January 2020.
The only boats that have been intercepted since then trying to make a landing have come from Sri Lanka.
The majority of the boats were rounded up by Sri Lanka’s navy, but 183 people made it to Australian waters on six boats between May and August, and were returned by air and sea to Colombo.
Operation Sovereign Borders, originally introduced by former conservative Prime Minister Tony Abbott in 2013, sees smuggler-boats intercepted at sea and migrants returned to their port of departure – usually in Indonesia – or taken to offshore processing centres.
Migrants found to be legitimate asylum seekers have been settled in third countries at Australia’s expense.