- EXCLUSIVE by Matt Johnson | The Daily Telegraph
- October 24, 2012 12:00AM
Asylum seekers
arrive on Christmas Island. Source: The Daily Telegraph
ALMOST a third
of illegal boat arrivals in the past two weeks carried fewer than a dozen
people as desperate asylum seekers clamber to board any vessel available.
The 24th boat
to arrive in the past fortnight had just 11 people on board, according to Customs
and Border Protection.Six other boats have arrived, each carrying between five
and nine asylum seekers, since October 10.
Customs
officials denied there was a trend appearing but said there were occasional
surges of smaller boats that arrive in Australian waters. Refugee advocate Ian
Rintoul said it was a symptom of more people fleeing Sri Lanka on fishing boats
rather than through more organised smuggling networks in Indonesia.
"There are
no 'Mr Bigs' organising those boats," Mr Rintoul said, adding that there
had been periods during the Howard era and under Labor when a series of smaller
boats had arrived.
"They
(asylum seekers) just found what they could get."
A rising number
of asylum seeker boats came from Sri Lanka despite that country's navy having
apprehended thousands of other people trying to leave the country.
Opposition
immigration spokesman Scott Morrison has called for boats to be turned back to
Sri Lanka to send a message about Australia's border protection system.
A spokesperson
for Customs and Border Protection said that small boat arrivals happened from
"time to time".
The government
said the flow would slow once the full range of recommendations from a review
of boat arrivals, led by former defence chief Angus Houston, were in place.
Meanwhile a
group of "pirate" asylum seekers that took over a boat near Sri Lanka
last week is still travelling towards Australia.
Three crew
members were allegedly thrown overboard and rescued by Sri Lankan authorities
after being attacked with knives during the drama at sea.
