by: Amanda Hodge and Lauren Wilson From: The Australian April 11, 2013 12:00AM
THE Sri Lankan navy is warning that the undetected voyage of an asylum-seeker boat that reached the mainland will encourage more people to set off on dangerous journeys because they will realise Australia's maritime security has failed.
Sri Lanka's navy operations commander, N. Attygalle, sounded the alarm over Australia's border security regime as immigration authorities prepared to fly 66 Sri Lankan men, women and children who reached Geraldton on Tuesday to Christmas Island on a charter flight for processing.
"What is alarming about this is that they have passed Christmas Island, probably within 50 miles of it, and got almost within swimming distance of the Australian mainland without being detected," Commodore Attygalle told The Australian.
"That's bad news. That means people here will realise surveillance is not that good so they will think they can go also."
Canberra-based Sri Lankan high commissioner Thisara Samarasinghe also weighed in, cautioning that the way the Gillard government handled the fallout from the boat's arrival would be "critical" and "give a message to the rest of the people who are considering coming".
Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare and Immigration Minister Brendan O'Connor spent yesterday grappling with the arrival into the bustling West Australian port -- much further south than usual people-smuggling routes -- and ordered Customs to conduct an internal review into the breach. The vessel, donated by Deutsche Bank after the 2004 tsunami, is the first to reach the Australian mainland in five years, and one of the 76 boats carrying 4616 asylum-seekers to make it into Australian waters this year.
As border protection shapes as a defining election issue, Tony Abbott accused Labor of "surrendering" control over Australia's borders, and branded as a "disaster" the government's boats policy. Mr O'Connor hit back, saying the Opposition Leader was guilty of breathless hysteria.
Recent co-operation between Sri Lanka and Australia, as well as the Sri Lankan navy turning back asylum boats, has stemmed the flow of boatpeople from the South Asian nation. Australia has repatriated almost 1000 Sri Lankans since August after they were found to be economic migrants, not genuine asylum-seekers.
The Australian understands there was no crew on Tuesday's vessel, and authorities are investigating whether it was a self-funded and self-sailed voyage, with passengers claiming they were at sea for 44 days.
Mr O'Connor warned that if those on board were found not to be genuine asylum-seekers, they would be immediately returned to Colombo. The government is also examining whether surveillance aircraft and patrol boats need to be repositioned to prevent people-smugglers targeting new and dangerous routes, and will consider moving navy ships further south from their patrol zone in Australia's northern waters.
Concerns have been raised that the major offshore oil and gas facilities on the North West Shelf could be vulnerable to terrorist attacks and are now visited regularly by navy patrol boats.
The vessel would have sailed past tens of billions of dollars worth of resource-sector infrastructure and equipment.
Since September, a patrol boat has been permanently stationed at Cocos Islands, which is the usual destination of Sri Lankan asylum-seeker boats.
West Australian Premier Colin Barnett described the boat's arrival as a "game-changer" and said: "There's probably a stronger case for a better Customs and even defence capacity around Geraldton -- maybe a patrol boat in Geraldton harbour."
He expressed concerns the coastline could now be exposed to more asylum boats travelling the same route. "We've got to be concerned about not only asylum-seekers, there could be crime gangs, crime syndicates," he said.
Commodore Attygalle cast doubt on the asylum-seekers' claims that they had been at sea for 44 days. He said the trip was likely to have taken less than half that time.
"The boat is quite large -- between 45 and 50 feet long -- so would have very good endurance," he said. "These are one-way journeys and these boats have six-cylinder engines and the capacity to carry 15,000 litres of fuel, which is enough."
The Australian understands authorities have concerns about the health of several passengers. A child was taken to hospital and the condition of a pregnant woman was being monitored.
The single men who landed were last night being held in the Northam detention centre, 460km southeast of Geraldton, while the women and children were taken to Perth.
Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said Labor's failure to pass its legislation to excise the Australian mainland from the migration zone meant the arrivals could not be transferred to Nauru or Manus Island. "Minister O'Connor has been caught red-handed doing nothing by his government's failure to get that legislation through the parliament," he said.
Labor said yesterday it was committed to getting the legislation through the Senate and its "no-advantage test" would apply to the asylum-seekers. Immigration Minister Brendan O'Connor said the government intended to send the arrivals to Christmas Island and "if the international obligations pursuant to the refugee convention are not exercised, they will be going to Sri Lanka".
Refugee advocate and lawyer David Manne said, having reached the mainland, the asylum-seekers had "the right . . . to apply for refugee protection".