Undetected asylum seeker boat lands in Beagle Bay in WA’s north, near Broome

An undetected boat suspected of transporting dozens of asylum seekers has reportedly arrived in a remote community in WA’s north.

Authorities are believed to be heading to Beagle Bay, 100km north of Broome, after about 30 people arrived by boat on Friday.

It’s understood the group of people, all believed to be men from Pakistan, were found by locals on a beach.

The ABC is reporting the men are in good health and are now on the main street of the community and have been given water at a local store.

This is the second time a boat has slipped under the radar and arrived on WA’s shores in three months, with the Federal Government under pressure to explain how it keeps happening.

In November, a vessel with about a dozen people from Indonesia arrived in the Kimberley region.

The group trekked through the treacherous terrain for two days in 35C heat before arriving at the Truscott North Kimberley Airport where they were given food, water and shelter.

This prompted the Australian Border Force a month later to launch a new operation off the WA coast to help authorities tackle the higher-than-usual number of illegal foreign boats detected in the region.

Operation LEEDSTRUM is focused on ramping up aerial, land and sea surveillance to deter, detect and take enforcement action for overseas fishers doing the wrong thing.

Just hours before Friday boat was discovered in Beagle Bay, the Government boasted about how well the operation had performed in its first two months.

“(We have) intercepted three Indonesian fishing vessels operating illegally within the Kimberley Marine Park in separate events,” the Australian Fisheries Management Authority and ABF said in a joint statement.

On Facebook, the ABF wrote: “You can run but you can’t hide! #ourboatsarefaster Australia continues to ensure that those illegally fishing in Australian waters are caught.”

It comes after The West Australian revealed that nearly 160 foreign fishing boats were intercepted off WA’s coast between July and November, which was more than three times the amount of the previous year.

A total of 65 of these were sighted in just 24 hours in late October.

The West also obtained videos showing boats packed with people believed to be from Indonesia in waters off the Kimberley coast, and footage of rubbish left on Vansittart Bay — a protected island in the region.

Experts have previously warned that authorities have been struggling to keep track of the rise in illegal fishing and increased risk of smuggling of drugs and asylum seekers because of the sheer size of its northern coastlines.