Asylum-seeker boat lands in Australia

Asylum-seeker boat lands in Australia

AUSTRALIA: A small fishing vessel suspected of carrying about 20 asylum seekers was discovered on a northern Australian island on Tuesday, a government spokesman said.

The boat and its passengers were found on a beach by a resident of Melville Island, part of the Tiwi Islands that lie about 75 kilometers (45 miles) north of Darwin, capital of the Northern Territory province.

"There's a small Indonesian fishing boat near Melville Island, it's got between 15 and 20 people on board including the crew," a spokesman for Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said on usual condition of anonymity. "We don't know for sure where they're from."

Gibson Farmer, chairman of the Milikapiti Aboriginal community council on the island, told The Australian Associated Press the boat arrived about midday, carrying four Indonesian crew and 14 passengers.

"They said 'Turkey, Turkey, from Turkey,"' Farmer said. "So we went down there and asked them (what they were doing), and they didn't understand English. -- AP