Asylum seeker group suggests group, including women and children, are detained in hotel – but minister says people being held are fishermen

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The immigration minister has dismissed claims that asylum seeker vessels were brought to Darwin on Thursday, telling media a number of illegal fishermen have been detained.

Guardian Australia has confirmed that immigration are holding people at a hotel near Darwin airport. They are being guarded by plainclothed officers.

An asylum seeker advocacy group had earlier reported that four boats carrying asylum seekers from south and south-east Asia, including infants and children, had been brought to the city.

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One source reported a baby crying from the block, which has been cordoned off for the purposes of immigration transit. Guardian Australia has located the group but has not confirmed the presence of any women or children.

A spokeswoman for the immigration department said reports that asylum seekers were being held in Darwin were incorrect. “There are a number of Vietnamese illegal foreign fishers currently detained in Darwin, awaiting court proceedings,” she said.

In a media conference on Friday morning, the immigration minister, Peter Dutton, said there had been no people-smuggling venture arrive in Darwin but said his understanding was that there had been some illegal fishing operations.

Sandra Bartlett, the coordinator of the Darwin Asylum Seeker Support and Advocacy Network, said: “If they are asylum seekers then they have a legal right to access a lawyer, but without us having any access to contact them we aren’t able to make them aware of their rights.”

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In November 2013 a group of about 50 asylum seekers arrived by boat in Darwin harbour and were later transferred to Christmas Island. The government refused to confirm that arrival for almost a week. Government policy dictates that asylum seekers arriving in Australia would normally be transferred to Christmas Island within 48 hours.

Any arrival has the potential to embarrass the government after its pledge to create a “ring of steel” around Australia to deter asylum seekers in the wake of its refugee resettlement deal with the US.

The prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, said the combined operation would be the largest peacetime deployment of defence forces and was aimed at combating an expected increase in people smugglers off the country’s north coast.