Paul Maley; 7/10/08
A second boatload of illegal migrants has been intercepted in the Timor Sea while heading for Australia, undermining an assurance by the Rudd Government that Labor’s softening of its refugee policy has not been exploited by people smugglers. A wooden fishing boat carrying 17 people, believed to be three crew and 14 passengers, landed at an offshore oil facility called the Front Puffin in the Timor Sea at 1.30pm AEST yesterday. The Front Puffin is located at the Puffin oil field, which is in Australian waters about 700km west of Darwin. The people in the fishing boat, who are understood to be from the Middle East, were later picked up by the navy. Last night, they were en route to Christmas Island, where they will join a second boatload of suspected asylum-seekers who arrived almost exactly a week before them.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24457898-2702,00.html
Tags: Australia, Migrants & Refugees