The Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, Scott Morrison, says there have been no boat arrivals for more than three weeks.
Morrison has abandoned his weekly media briefing in favour of releasing written statements. In today’s statement, he says: “It has been more than three weeks since the last group of illegal maritime arrivals were transferred to immigration authorities by Border Protection Command.”
Morrison acknowledged that January is usually a quieter period but claimed “the strong policies being implemented by the government mean that people smugglers are being denied the ability to ply their trade with any success”. He said boat arrivals numbered 419, 278 and 271 in the same period over the past three years.
A separate statement from the Customs and Border Protection Service says there are now 1259 people on Manus Island, 867 in Nauru and 2107 on Christmas Island.
Neither statement makes any mention of the towbacks reported by Indonesian and Australian media this week.
Media release from Scott Morrison, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection.
No illegal boat arrivals for more than three weeks
Once again, there have been no persons transferred to Australian immigration authorities during the past reporting week under Operation Sovereign Borders, who arrived in Australia illegally by boat.
It has been more than three weeks since the last group of illegal maritime arrivals were transferred to immigration authorities by Border Protection Command.