Suspected asylum seeker boat sighted off West Australia

A small wooden boat suspected to be carrying asylum seekers has been sighted off the north-west coast of Australia, reports BBC.

Crew working for oil and gas producer Modec spotted the boat within 500m of their floating oil tanker, about 150km (93 miles) from the Dampier coast.

A Modec spokesman said “a large number of people” appeared to be on the boat.

If confirmed as asylum seekers, it would be the first “illegal” vessel entry into Australia since June 2014.

At that time, 157 people were intercepted about 16 nautical miles from Australia’s Christmas Island, in the Indian Ocean, and taken to the mainland.

Australia has adopted a number of measures to stop asylum seekers reaching Australia by boat.

Seaworthy vessels

Modec Australia country operations manager Gary Kennedy told the BBC the company had contacted Australian authorities about the boat, which appeared to be seaworthy.

Neither the Australian Maritime Authority nor Minister for Immigration Peter Dutton would comment.