FED: Several weeks needed to sort out boatpeople

AAP General News (Australia)
04-13-1999
FED: Several weeks needed to sort out boatpeople

By Debra Way

CANBERRA, April 13 AAP - Deciding the fate of the 60 boatpeople who landed on a New South
Wales beach could take several weeks as authorities undertook the mammoth task of interviewing
each person, the immigration department said today.

Forty-seven people were detained on the NSW mid-north coast on Saturday after their 40
metre long boat with Chinese markings beached. Seven more were found wandering in bushland on
Sunday.

NSW Police yesterday found another five illegal immigrants - four in Kempsey and one man in
the nearby Way Way State Forest - while a man was located in a Kempsey phone box today.

An immigration department spokeswoman said those found on Saturday had been taken to the
Port Hedland detention centre in Western Australia to be interviewed and the remainder would
be flown there some time today.

"It may take some time in terms of establishing people's identity," she said.

"We have to find out who they are and make sure they are who they say they are and that
could take some time, especially with so many people to interview - it can take several
weeks."

The spokeswoman said she was not able to confirm whether the boatpeople had applied for
asylum.

Prime Minister John Howard last night ordered a top level inquiry into Australia's coastal
surveillance following Saturday's beaching.

It was the third group of boatpeople to arrive on Australian shores since Christmas.

The inquiry was announced as the navy picked up another 10 people off the West Australian
coast yesterday.

The HMAS Wollongong, on a routine surveillance patrol, intercepted a wooden boat carrying
10 suspected illegal immigrants early yesterday.

The boat was detected by a Coastwatch surveillance flight about 250 nautical miles north of
Broome and kept under surveillance until it was intercepted by the Wollongong, Customs said.

A Customs spokesman said the 10 people had been transferred to a Customs vessel and taken
to shore where they were handed over to immigration authorities.

Defence Minister John Moore said Australia's success at detecting boatloads of illegal
immigrants meant operators had got smarter.

"They're now going much more widely out to sea in the international waters, where they have
every right to go, and then making a dash for the coastline," he told ABC radio.

AAP da/sc/it

KEYWORD: BOAT IMMIGRATION

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