A boat carrying asylum seekers was intercepted close to Christmas Island on Friday, the first to reach Australian waters since June 2014.

The boat made it within 200m of Flying Fish Cove before it was boarded by Australian officials, sources on the island told Guardian Australia.

It is unclear whether the boat was intercepted by Australian navy or Border Force staff.

Those on board were given life jackets. The boat was moved further away from the island and covered in a tarpaulin so the arrivals cannot be counted or identified, the sources said.

Christmas Island shire president Gordon Thomson said locals spotted the fishing boat early on Friday morning about 100 to 200 metres from Smith Point, the entry to the island’s harbour.

By the time he arrived to join onlookers at Smith Point before 7am, the boat was being towed by an Australian navy patrol boat and was about 3km to 5km out to sea.

“I saw the navy patrol boat towing the Indonesian fishing boat out to sea away from Christmas Island,” he told AAP. “It’s a wicked thing to do.”

Thomson said the federal government had not notified him about approaching boats since 2009. He questioned whether officials checked the boat’s seaworthiness before towing it out to sea.

Given it arrived into the harbour, Customs would have needed to issue a port clearance which can only be done if the boat is seaworthy, he said.

It is believed the boat came from Indonesia, but sources said it is not known from which country the asylum seekers came originally.

Historically, the boat journey from south-west Java to Christmas Island - a distance of a little more than 350km - has been a popular route for people seeking protection in Australia.

It is the first boat to reach Australian waters since June last year, when 157 Sri Lankan Tamils were intercepted about 300km from the island. They were held on board for a month and, after negotiations to send them back to India broke down, transferred to immigration detention in Nauru.

Australia claims to have “turned back” 20 boats since Operation Sovereign Borders began in late 2013. Boats have been forcibly sent back to Indonesia and Sri Lanka, some crashing on reefs and requiring rescue.

In May at least one boat returned to Indonesia after the crew was paid by Australian government officials, according to an investigation by Amnesty International. The immigration department has not denied paying the people smugglers, but maintained it had acted within international law at all times.

The prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull refused to comment on the boat’s arrival on Friday..

Addressing media in Darwin, he reiterated that the government did not comment on operational matters, and would not answer whether those on board - including any children - would be detained in offshore processing centres.

“I can’t help you other than to say we do not comment on operational matters,” he said.

Steven Ciobo, the minister for international development and the Pacific, told the ABC: “I think Australians and, importantly, those engaged in people smuggling know the absolute resolute way Australia now deals with this matter and that is to say we will not tolerate those people that seek to come to Australia by boat.

“They will be processed offshore and they will not find a home here in Australia,” he said.

Labor called on the immigration minister, Peter Dutton, to immediately detail what has taken place off Christmas Island and provide an assurance that Australia was complying with its international obligations.

“It is unacceptable for this Liberal government to refuse to answer questions about this reported vessel and instead continue to peddle the phrase ‘operational matters’,” the opposition’s immigration spokesman, Richard Marles, said in a statement.

“This is nothing more than a tired, lazy slogan for suppressing facts from the Australian community.”

The Greens immigration spokeswoman, senator Sarah Hanson-Young, called on the government to let the boat land safely and unload its passengers.

“The safest thing to do now is to let these people land on Christmas Island and find out who they are,” she said.

“It’s clear that, despite the government’s repeated claims, the boats haven’t stopped.”

An immigration detention centre has operated on the Australian territory since 2001. Its population has changed in the past months to include fewer asylum seekers and more “501s” – migrants whose visas have been cancelled and who face imminent deportation.

At 14 November, the detention facility on the island was home to 199 detainees, 113 of whom, according to the Australian government, had criminal convictions.



The immigration minister, Peter Dutton, confirmed on Friday that 12 New Zealanders had been deported from the facility after riots broke out earlier this month, following the death of an Iranian asylum seeker.

The department of immigration has been contacted for comment on the latest asylum boat.