Government insists fresh evidence does not mean new asylum seeker arrivals in WA

Fresh evidence of a possible asylum seeker boat arrival in the northern reaches of WA has reportedly been found, sparking the deployment of Border Force officials back to the region.

However, the Government says photos of items recently found are part of the clean up from the arrival of asylum seekers at Beagle Bay last month and Border Force officials are conducting routine community engagement.

Two groups of men, understood to be from the same boat, were found near Broome in February after managing to arrive on the Australian mainland.

They were quickly sent to the offshore immigration processing centre in Nauru.

Aboriginal residents of the Dampier peninsula near Broome have since found clothes and rubbish items in the area, The Australian reported on Friday.

The report said Australian Border Force officials had rushed back to the region.

But the Government denied there was any scramble, instead saying the ABF often visited communities, who were a vital part of the border surveillance network.

“The ABF can confirm there are officers in the Beagle Bay region as part of ongoing community engagement activities. They are also collecting leftover debris from last month’s operation,” a Border Force spokesperson said.

“The community will always have an important role to play in protecting our border and we encourage anyone with information relating to suspicious activities to contact Border Watch.”

There was no evidence of any new asylum seeker arrivals, a Government source said.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese insisted Operation Sovereign Borders was still in full force to prevent boat arrivals.

He was asked about reports a boatload of Rohingyas capsized off the coast of the Aceh province in Indonesia.

“Operation Sovereign Borders is working effectively, as we have said and as the people that are operating it have said,” he said.

“When there were arrivals in the Kimberley, we dealt with that very swiftly. Those people aren’t in Australia. They’re on Nauru.”

Mr Albanese said it was unclear whether the people on the capsized boat were in fact headed to Australia.

It’s understood that claim may never be verified, and a Government source noted the incident happened a significant distance from Australia.

The Beagle Bay arrival in February was the second time in three months a boat made it to WA’s shores.

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

This prompted the ABF 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.

In the second half of last year, three times as many illegal fishing boats were intercepted off WA’s coast than in the previous year.

The West has previously 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 warned at the time the sheer size of the coastline meant authorities were struggling to keep track of the rise in illegal fishing and the increased risk of smuggling drugs and asylum seekers.