Officials, possibly Customs or AQIS inspectors, on board a Sri Lankan asylum seeker boat n Geraldton Harbour today. Picture: Graeme Gibbons Source: PerthNow
WA PREMIER Colin Barnett says the Federal Immigration Minister should 'get out his atlas' as he rejected claims he whipped up hysteria over the boatload of asylum seekers who landed in Geraldton yesterday.
Premier Barnett yesterday described the arrival of 66 Sri Lankan asylum seekers aboard a rickety fishing vessel at one of Australia's busiest regional ports as ``shocking'' and said it signalled an alarming breach of national security.
"I certainly don't believe in any sense I was hysterical. But this was a large number of people, 66, and to simply sail into Geraldton harbour - that is unprecedented,'' Mr Barnett said this afternoon, responding to comments from Federal Immigration Minister Brendan O'Connor.
He also suggested Mr O'Connor should get out his atlas and check where Geraldton is.
"It's not in the North-West of the state. Yes, people have landed in the North-West before but this is the southern half of the state,'' Mr Barnett said.
A map showing Geraldton harbour and the arrival of a Sri Lankan boat carrying 66 suspected asylum seekers. Picture: Graeme Gibbons
Mr O'Connor, who was in WA last week to visit the remote Curtin Detention centre, said the Premier's words were not helpful - and not true.
"It is not unprecedented; there were 11 boats that arrived in WA during the Howard years alone,'' Mr O'Connor told Fairfax radio.
"The premier is wrong in his language. His language is bordering on hysteria, as it has happened many times before.
"This is rare and it won't happen often, and I think it is unfair and unreasonable for the premier to describe it (that way).''
The boat-load of Sri Lankan asylum seekers arrived in Geraldton around midday. Picture: Graeme Gibbons
Meanwhile a Category Three cyclone off the WA coast will force the Sri Lankan asylum seekers to spend another night on the mainland, as the storm prevents flights to Christmas Island.
The single males among the group have now been sent to Northam's Yongah Hill detention centre, about 90km east of Perth, according to a spokesman for the Department of Immigration.
Families, women and children are being housed in lower security "A-pods'' - Alternate Places of Detention - in Perth.
They will all be sent to Christmas Island for processing but a category three cyclone intensifying in the Indian Ocean off WA's North-West means it is too dangerous for a charter plane to reach the island today.
And it may be several days more before the weather improves, with Tropical Cyclone Victoria, which is just 400km south-west of Christmas Island, expected to continue to gather strength.
``It won't be today because there are unfavourable weather conditions and it's been decided an air charter wouldn't be prudent in those circumstances, but we will move them to Christmas Island as soon as possible,'' an Immigration spokesman said.
``We can't see how we could get them there with the weather being the way it is.''
The spokesman said the A-pods are ``still part of our secure detention facility network but they're not quite as high security as Yongah Hills''.
It is believed to be the first boat to reach the mainland so close to Perth.
Barely 430km north of Perth, the coastal centre is more than 2000km south of Christmas Island where asylum seekers coming to Australia are usually intercepted.
Despite Geraldton Port being one of Australia's busiest regional ports, the boat with 66 people aboard made it to within metres of the mainland - and was intercepted first by two local men in a dinghy.
Those on board told the men they had been at sea for at least six weeks, having travelled more than 5000km to reach Geraldton, a port more used to dealing with iron ore, grains, talc, garnet and fertilisers.
The Sri Lankan passengers pulled into the harbour on their overcrowded vessel around midday (WST), stunning witnesses.
An overcrowded asylum-seeker boat with around 72 people on board has pulled into Geraldton, 400 kilometres north of Perth. Courtesy GDTV Productions
Authorities are unsure how the vessel reached so far south and believe the crew may have set the wrong course.
Immigration officials will make arrangements ''as soon as possible'' for their transfer to the island's detention facilities.
Under existing legislation, asylum seekers who reach the mainland will avoid being sent to processing centres on Nauru or Manus Island in Papua New Guinea.
Federal Labor is seeking to change this, with legislation currently before the Senate.
Asylum seekers on the vessel have held up a sign saying, "We want to go to New Zealand. Please help us.''
The boat is believed to have been at sea for 44 days.
It is believed the Sri Lankans want to be sent to New Zealand because the government has voluntarily and involuntarily returned about 1000 Sri Lankans since August last year.
The vessel was met by a pilot boat in Geraldton harbour with WA Police now on the scene.
"Customs and Border Protection have advised a suspected irregular entry vessel arrived within the harbour limits of Geraldton this afternoon,'' a spokesman for Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare said.
"Initial indications suggest there are 66 people on board.
"Customs and Border Protection officers and Western Australian Police are responding to the arrival.''
Geraldton Port Authority chief executive officer Peter Klein said a response team had set up a processing post for the asylum seekers.
"Police and Customs have been notified and are on the scene,'' he said.
WA Premier Colin Barnett said he was "alarmed" that a boat carrying asylum seekers could sail undetected into Geraldton.
"This is a serious, unprecedented and unacceptable breach of Australia's border security," Mr Barnett said.
"That a boat, laden with people, can sail into a busy regional port in broad daylight is shocking.
"Geraldton Port is one of Australia's busiest regional ports and Australia's second-largest for grain export.
"The State Government is working co-operatively with the Commonwealth on this issue and will ensure people's welfare is being looked after."
Geraldton's waterfront Dome Cafe manager Steve Branch said customers at the cafe were shocked when the boat sailed in and "dropped anchor'' about 100 metres off-shore.
"At first I don't think people knew what it was. There were a few people that thought it might have been a protest group,'' Mr Branch said.
"But after it had been there for half an hour, a customs boat went out to it and that's when people realised 'wow, that's an asylum seeker boat'.''
Mr Branch said the vessel was "packed'' with about 50 to 60 people on the deck.
"It was an old wooden fishing boat, the same as the asylum boats you see on TV. It basically just sailed in and dropped anchor about 100m off the beach.
"The reaction from most people was amazement - that they had made it this far south.
"There's an awful lot of coastline between us and Broome. It's certainly something we've never seen here before."
- with Ashlee Mullany
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