THE 100th asylum boat to arrive since Kevin Rudd took office sailed directly to Christmas Island yesterday, arriving quietly at Flying Fish Cove before those aboard phoned authorities, requesting to be picked up.
As the Immigration Department prepared to transfer another 50 refugees and asylum-seekers to the Australian mainland today, authorities announced the interception of two more boats, bringing to 100 the number of vessels to arrive since November 2007.
A media release issued by Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor yesterday announced: "HMAS Broome. . . operating under the control of Border Protection Command, today intercepted a suspected irregular entry vessel in the vicinity of Christmas Island".
In fact, the opposite was closer to the truth: the boat's 41 passengers and three crew effectively intercepted HMAS Broome.
Sources on the island said the boat sailed under the nose of the patrol boat as it lay at anchor before arriving at Flying Fish Cove, the island's harbour.
The Australian has been told authorities became aware of the vessel only after Australian Federal Police duty officers on the island received two phone calls from a heavily accented person, apparently an asylum-seeker using a mobile phone.
The Australian has been told that, in one of the calls, a male caller told the officer: "You need to come, you need to come".
When asked where the caller was, the voice replied: "At Christmas Island. We arrived today".
It is understood the AFP then drove to Flying Fish Cove suspecting a vessel may have arrived, but couldn't see anything.
Harbour master Dave Robertson alerted Customs and local stevedores and drove to a headland at the edge of the cove, where he saw HMAS Broome already sending a boarding party to secure the boat.
The navy took the vessel to a mooring and Customs boarded the boat at about 7.30am, local time. It is not the first time an asylum boat has eluded authorities at Christmas Island. Before dawn on April 8 last year, a 15m fishing boat slipped past Customs to deliver 38 asylum-seekers to the island's jetty.
Last night a spokeswoman for Border Protection Command confirmed police had received a phone call indicating that "another boat was on the way". She said HMAS Broome "prudently maintained an alert posture near the mouth of Flying Fish Cove while preparing to refuel".
Only hours earlier, on Sunday night, authorities intercepted the 99th boat southwest of Ashmore Island. On board were 37 passengers and four crew.
All told, the 100 boats have ferried 4386 passengers and at least 225 crew members to Australia.
The arrival of a boat at Christmas Island is an embarrassment for the Rudd government, which was yesterday forced to defend itself against claims of lax security following news that three Chinese nationals scaled a fence to escape from Sydney's Villawood detention centre. The escape early yesterday followed that of four other detainees in the past month.
And it came barely 24 hours after 89 failed asylum-seekers were transferred to Villawood, ostensibly for security reasons.
The Immigration Department said yesterday there were 271 asylum-seekers and 76 crew on the mainland without visas, a development the opposition has labelled as the end of universal offshore processing.
The government denies that, saying the move to the mainland will make no difference to claims and that it remains committed to offshore processing.
Yesterday, refugee legal expert Michelle Foster, of the University of Melbourne, backed the government's advice, saying because the men arrived in areas excised from the migration zone, they were legally prevented from applying for a visa.
Around 50 asylum-seekers and successful refugees are expected to be taken off Christmas Island today.
Yesterday, the Immigration Department said the Villawood centre's operators, Serco, which has sacked or stood down 10 of its staff over security breaches, could be fined. Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard said Immigration Minister Chris Evans, who has ordered a review into the blunders, had made it clear to Serco that the incidents were unacceptable.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott rejected what he said were government attempt to evade responsibility for the security breach.
The Australian
