it is now 7 weeks since the last boat arrived - there is a report that a boat has been returned to indonesia
" A BOAT carrying about 50 asylum seekers has reportedly been pushed back to Indonesian waters by Australian authorities, and washed up on a Java beach. Indonesian news service Kompas.com reports the group of Middle Eastern people stranded on Pangandaran Beach, West Java, on Wednesday night. They then dispersed, and only 21 were in the custody of Indonesian police, the report on Thursday said. Among them were pregnant women and children. They said they had been pushed back by Australian authorities after the boat they were on managed to cross into...". . .
the above story mentions a boat being pushed back - but the canberra times mention that one of scotties lifeboats was used
"The Australian government has deployed another of its big orange lifeboats to return a group of asylum seekers to Indonesia — the sixth confirmed turn-back since the policy was enacted in December.
Sources in Cisarua, where many asylum seekers gather before boarding boats, believe the 34 people onboard had left almost two weeks ago, on January 27.
That timing suggest the people have been in the custody of Australian authorities for a perhaps a week before embarking on the "unsinkable" vessel.
Reports emerged in recent days of Australian vessels Triton and Bathurst sailing off the coast of Christmas Island, with an orange boat in tow. Advertisement
Indonesian media reported the boat was carrying 34 people and had landed on the west coast of Pangandaran bay, on Java's southern coast at about 8.30pm local time on Wednesday night. . . . it seems that scotty is returning all boaties - and is not really worried about what the indos think
