An asylum seeker boat is believed to have run aground at a small beach on Christmas Island.
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has stopped granting any new permanent visas for asylum seekers
"They have been living on Dolly Beach since Monday" ... Gordon Thomson, Christmas Island shire president. Picture: Jackson Flindell Source: News Limited
RED-faced authorities will resume searching this morning for 14 asylum seekers missing from a boat believed to have sunk off Christmas Island on Monday, but went undetected until yesterday.
In an embarrassing security blunder, 28 Burmese refugees came ashore and survived on rainwater, coconuts and crabs before eight of them were accidentally discovered by authorities who were clueless they were even on the island.
In a statement at midnight last night, Immigration Minister Scott Morrison confirmed the eight people, including two crew, were being housed in a facility at Phosphate Hill under his department's care.
Mr Morrison said another person was in the Christmas Island Hospital in a stable condition after sustaining minor injuries.
Five people were being escorted by the Australian Federal Police to the Phosphate Hill facility after being found.
But another 14 people had still not been apprehended.
Mr Morrison said five people had been sighted at two locations on the southeastern side of the island while another nine people had still not been found.
"(They) are believed to be in heavy jungle approximately 50 minutes' walk away from the nearest road," Mr Morrison said.
"A search is underway for the individuals, coordinated by the AFP.
"Advice from the AFP indicates it is unlikely those yet to be sighted will be located this evening. However an AFP presence will remain in the search area. Due to the rough conditions the search has been suspended and will resume at first light Friday morning.
"No persons are believed to have been lost at sea."
His comments came after the detection emerged earlier on the island, which is home to Australia's key refugee processing centre.
The incident has left the Federal Government and Mr Morrison open to ridicule over its Operation Sovereign Borders, which was supposed to end the problems with Australia's porous borders.
Christmas Island Shire president Gordon Thomson said the asylum seekers had been living on the secluded Dolly Beach since their boat sank on Monday.
It is not known exactly where their boat sank but Dolly Beach is about 15km from the detention centre and is surrounded by dense bushland, with limited vehicle access.
Mr Thomson said the group were discovered yesterday morning after eight of them had walked from the beach on to a main road, been discovered by local authorities and taken into detention.
Some are believed to have been dehydrated.
Police, he added, had then gone back to the beach to look for the others.
"From what police said their boat sunk but there had been no casualties,'' Mr Thomson told The Daily Telegraph.
He said the area was a popular camping spot that had access to freshwater and food such as crabs and coconuts.
Mr Morrison last night confirmed Border Protection Command had received reports of an incident of an "unconfirmed nature".
"Details of the incident are not clear at this point and persons who were involved in this incident are being questioned by on-island agencies,'' he said.
"On island agencies and Border Protection Command assets are also responding and are on scene. Updates will be provided when further information is able to be confirmed."
More details are expected today from Mr Morrison as part of his weekly update on Operation Sovereign Borders, which the government has been championing for cutting boat arrivals by 80 per cent since the election.
But Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young last night said the government's "Operation Secret Boats" was a sham and called for more transparency.
"The coconut telegraph is running hot with information from Christmas Island, showing just how ridiculous the government's obsession with secrecy is," she said.
"We've heard more from Christmas Island residents today than we have from our own government.
"The fact that this boat arrived and then crashed without anyone realising raises questions about the capacity of search and rescue operations that have been seriously compromised in recent weeks."
Tracks Travern owner Col Dobson said the survival tale had been all the talk for his pub's clientele yesterday.
"There's plenty of crabs and coconuts down there," he said.
"It's crab migration season and many roads are closed to the public and apparently one of the rangers went down there and stumbled across them."
Christmas Island Hardware owner Don Greyson said it was probably one of the island's least frequented beaches.
"It's very isolated," Mr Greyson said, noting the rocky climb from the beach. "It's probably forty minutes walk through the jungle to the road and it's not a great track - you can see it but it's not easy, especially for somebody who hasn't been here.
"Also people generally go there on the weekend but other beaches are frequented more often so they were probably a bit unlucky - or lucky - in that regard."
In April when an asylum seeker boat cruised into the mainland port at Geraldton, Western Australia, Mr Morrison had attacked the Gillard government for allowing it to reach land.
"Every time you think things couldn't get worse under this government, they do," he had said.
While the government does not announce new asylum seeker boat arrivals, locals said the boat was one of four to arrive this week.
The most recent was a boat with 60 people on-board was reportedly taken to Christmas Island on Wednesday night after being intercepted.
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