All 17 Vietnamese people who waded ashore when their boat ran aground off the north Queensland coast have been apprehended by police and sent to Christmas Island, where they will have their asylum claims assessed in detention.

The final two of the group were brought into police custody from a ferry across the Daintree River Friday morning. All have been flown out of Queensland, with Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul, saying they arrived at Christmas Island on Tuesday afternoon.

“I hope they’re able to receive advice that they can make their claim while in detention,” Rintoul said.

The final two men, understood to be the captain and first mate of the rickety boat which ran aground near the mouth of the Daintree River, were taken into custody on Tuesday morning after being held by the operator of the river’s ferry, the ABC has reported.



There are reports the captain had made contact with people in Sydney before his arrest in an attempt to arrange transport from the area.

There had been conflicting reporting about whether the group were illegal fisherman who had strayed in Australian waters – as happens with some frequency – or asylum seekers posing as fishermen. The home affairs department has refused to answer questions or provide clarification, other than to confirm the apprehension of 17 Vietnamese nationals who came ashore north of Port Douglas.

Queensland fisherman Justin Ward (left) with two of the suspected asylum seekers.

The home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, has repeatedly claimed the boat was the first asylum seeker boat to arrive in Australia for four years.

“Australia, we believe, has received the first vessel; the first people-smuggling venture in over 1,400 days.

“Clearly there’s been a failing when surveillance has not worked as it should in identifying this vessel or allowing this vessel to get as close to the coastline as it has, but we’ll work through all of that.”

However prior to this group, six Chinese nationals landed in Saibai Island in north Queensland in August last year, after traveling from Papua New Guinea.

The boat’s arrival was confirmed by the acting head of the Australian Border Force and the foreign affairs minister at the time.

In May 2016, a boat carrying 12 Sri Lankan asylum seekers entered the lagoon at Australia’s Cocos Islands. The group was deported from Cocos and arrested upon return to the Sri Lankan capital Colombo.

The former head of the ABF, Roman Quaedvlieg, told Guardian Australia it was “exceptionally rare” for Vietnamese fishermen intercepted by Australian authorities to claim asylum.

“In the normal course of people-smuggling activities, if we find Vietnamese people on boats, they’ve come in a cohort of others and claim to be fleeing from Vietnamese authorities,” said Quaedvlieg.

“Separately to that, what we’ve seen over the last years are Vietnamese fisherman encroaching further and further south, chasing the sea cucumbers in the Coral Sea.”

Vietnamese asylum claims were usually made by people from the central highlands Montagnard ethnic group, or from a large fishing community in dispute with the Vietnamese government over traditional fishing rights and territories.

Quaedvlieg suggested the men on this week’s boat were likely Montagnards, a persecuted Christian minority, and could have been on a fishing expedition, taking the opportunity to claim asylum when they reached Australian land.

Asylum claims from Vietnamese arrivals were rarely accepted in Australia. In 2017 Australia was urged to intervene in the case of 29 Montagnards refused refugee status in Cambodia, in what the UN called “a grave error of judgment” given the documented risk of persecution.

The Australian government has previously indicated it has arrangements to ensure returned Vietnamese asylum seekers are not persecuted.

Asked if the government monitors those who are sent back, Quaedvlieg said it differed from country to country.

“We have mechanisms in place, with places like Sri Lanka,” he said. “But I’m not sure what’s in place in Vietnam. That’s the purview of foreign affairs.”

Two of the men were picked up by some local fisherman later on Sunday afternoon, shortly after the boat ran aground.

Justin Ward and Barry Preston were waved down by the pair as they passed in their boat while crabbing.

Justin Ward gives a suspected asylum seeker a tour before handing him in to authorities – ‘or I’d get into trouble’.

Despite the communication barrier, Ward said the brothers requested to go to the markets after being dragged out of the knee-deep water.

“We said ‘sorry mate, you’ve missed market day, that was yesterday’,” Ward said.

After some brief introductions the pair took the visitors crabbing with them on the river, and decided they weren’t illegal fisherman who’d drifted into foreign waters.

“We got them to pull the crab pots – yeah, they weren’t fishermen,” Ward said.



Upon returning to shore, Ward and Preston forced the men to stay with them until authorities arrived to take them into custody.

“We got back to the boat ramp and they were like ‘which way’ and we said ‘sorry’,” he said. “I was geniunely very sorry but there was not much I can do or I’d get into trouble.”