Revealing Australia's role in turning back boats and other border enforcement operations could affect Australia's relationship with other countries, home affairs minister Peter Dutton was told by his department.



Operation Sovereign Borders (OSB) is a military operation initiated under the Abbott government in 2013 to stop the flow of boats bringing asylum seekers to Australia.

The operation works in secrecy and very little information about what is being done is ever released to the public. When he was immigration minister Scott Morrison repeatedly refused to answer journalists' questions about boats, saying he would not comment on "on-water matters".

The briefings have long since stopped, but OSB still provides monthly updates.



So far the government has confirmed 33 boats have been turned back since the end of 2013. But aside from that, what is there to know about how this mysterious military operation is going? That's not for us to know.