A suspected asylum seeker boat has been reportedly seen approaching Western Australia’s north coast.
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Last September, Australian and Cambodian officials signed a AU$40 million ($32 million) deal to resettle only genuine refugees, not asylum seekers, who volunteer in the Southeast Asian country.
Border Protection Minister Peter Dutton’s office refused to comment.
Australia has vowed to stop asylum seekers reaching its shores, turning boats back to Indonesia when it can and sending those it cannot to camps in impoverished Papua New Guinea and Nauru in the South Pacific for long-term detention.
He said the crew of the oil tanker had not made contact with the boat, which he said appeared to be in good condition.
“It came inside the exclusion zone [around the production facility], which is why we alerted authorities”, Mr Kennedy told the BBC.
He said he had been told the people were Vietnamese but that had not been confirmed.
A Federal Government source has confirmed to the ABC a boat was sighted and will be intercepted.
The opposition Greens have criticized the government over its unwillingness to address the boat’s arrival in detail.
It had been reported that the Australian Maritime Safety Authority would fly out to assess the situation, but AMSA declined to comment.
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In June, reports that Australia paid people-smugglers bound for Australia thousands of dollars to turn their boat back to Indonesia caused tensions with Jakarta, plunging relations to their lowest point in more than a year.
