November 24, 2023
Asylum-seekers have arrived by boat at a WWII airfield owned by Aboriginal people on an isolated and rugged stretch of Kimberley coastline, sources have told The Australian.
The group of 12 people believed to have travelled from Indonesia are not fishermen but asylum-seekers, according to sources familiar with events.
The group arrived on the traditional lands of the Wunambal Gaambera people, about 36km west of the remote Aboriginal community of Kalumburu.
The Australian has been told they were "not in good shape" when they were found. They were helped by workers at the Wunambal Gaambera people's airstrip called Truscott.
Police arrived by helicopter at Truscott on Wednesday and were still there with the group on Thursday.
While asylum boats are occasionally intercepted close to the Australian territory of Christmas Island, 460km south of West Java, it is very rare for a people-smuggling operation to reach the Australian mainland.
The arrival is likely to heighten concerns that people smugglers believe they again have an attractive product to sell to desperate and naive people as a result of the High Court's landmark decision on immigration detention.
On November 8, the High Court ruled that Australia's system of indefinite immigration detention was a breach of the constitution.
In practice, the ruling was never likely to apply to new asylum boat arrivals, who are routinely screened out at sea and deported within days.
However, immigration authorities know that smugglers lie to customers and pitch any change to Australia's hard line as a sign that boats are accepted.
Opposition Home Affairs spokesman James Paterson claimed Australian Border Force was stretched because Labor slashed $600m from the border security budget.
"This would be the 10th people smuggling venture to attempt to arrive illegally in Australia since May 2022, and reports that they successfully reached the Australian coast are particularly alarming," Senator Paterson said.
Australian Border Force did not acknowledge the boat arrival when contacted by The Australian on Thursday. Instead, the Commonwealth government agency's media team issued its standard response to asylum boat queries for the past decade: "The Australian Border Force does not does not comment on operational matters".
The ABF also told other government agencies including police not to talk about the boat.
It is unknown how long the group was on the mainland before they were discovered.
There were early rumours that some in the group had gone missing in the bush but The Australian has been told everyone on board was accounted for by late Thursday.
One Kalumburu resident said the arrivals could have perished quickly if they had not been found. The area is known for saltwater crocodiles and the temperature in recent days has been between 34C and 35C.
There is no town at the Truscott air base. The RAAF built the airstrip on the Anjo Peninsula in 1944 because it is closer to Java than any other point on the Australian mainland it was for medium and heavy bombers, as well as Catalinas, to attack Borneo, Java, Timor and the Celebes during World War II.
The Wunambal Gaambera people now lease it out as a refuelling point and airstrip for the oil and gas industry to transfer workers to offshore rigs.
West Australian Liberal MP Neil Thomson, whose electorate takes in the Truscott air base, said: "Reports that a dozen or so people have illegally entered Western Australia's remote Kimberley Region should raise alarm bells for every Australian especially given the poor messaging that is being sent internationally after the release of asylum-seekers who have criminal history into our community.
"There have been a number of warnings to the government with recent illegal fishers entering our waters and this should have sent a clear message for increased vigilance but that appears to have broken down. Our community expects safety and vigilance as a minimum," he said.
