People smugglers seeing NZ as back door into Australia

CANBERRA: People smugglers are marketing New Zealand as a back door into Australia, an Australian government minister said after Malaysian authorities intercepted a boat carrying Sri Lankan asylum seekers.

More than 130 Sri Lankans believed to be heading for Australia and New Zealand were intercepted when Malaysian authorities halted the modified tanker last Tuesday off the coast of southern Johor state.

Malaysia’s Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Mohamad Fuzi Harun said in a statement that the group included 98 men, 24 women, four boys and five girls.

Border Protection Minister Peter Dutton credited those who stopped the boat for doing great work in disrupting “a very sophisticated operation” to bring people to either New Zealand or Australia.

“Some people it seems have been told different stories about their destination,” Dutton said.

“New Zealand is now being marketed as a definite destination.”

Because of Australia’s close ties with New Zealand, travellers who arrive in New Zealand immediately qualify for an Australian visa.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the focus needed to be on preventing the boats from ever leaving port.

Australia has stopped asylum seekers from attempting to reach its shores aboard rickety fishing boats from Indonesian ports by refusing to allow boat arrivals to ever resettle on the Australian mainland.

Australia pays the poor Pacific nations of Nauru and Papua New Guinea to keep asylum seekers from Asia, the Middle East and Africa in immigration camps indefinitely.

New Zealand doesn’t have similar policies but Ardern said that didn’t make the country an easy target.

“Our laws around people smugglers are strict, they carry a heavy penalty, and those individuals would be pursued if they ever were in New Zealand waters,” she said. — AP