Severe monsoons in waters north of Australia have blunted the influx of asylum-seeker boats, but the drop in arrivals has also raised hopes the offshore-processing regime and forced returns to Sri Lanka might be having an impact.
With 10 days left in January, 188 asylum-seekers have arrived on boats in Australian waters, compared with more than 300 last January. There were a record 17,202 arrivals by boat last year.
The encouraging start comes after arrivals more than halved in December to 1149 compared with 2629 in November.
However, one-third of this month’s arrivals has been intercepted in the past 24 hours. Two boats carrying 65 asylum-seekers were intercepted overnight Sunday off Christmas Island.
Senior government sources have told The Australian that while the wild weather accompanying the monsoon season was having a significant role in preventing boats from leaving Indonesian ports, the impact of Labor’s new border-protection policies was understood to be having an effect - particularly on arrivals from Sri Lanka.
SEVERE monsoons in waters north of Australia have blunted the influx of asylum-seeker boats, but the drop in arrivals has also raised hopes the offshore-processing regime and forced returns to Sri Lanka might be having an impact.
With 10 days left in January, 188 asylum-seekers have arrived on boats in Australian waters, compared with more than 300 last January. There were a record 17,202 arrivals by boat last year.
The encouraging start comes after arrivals more than halved in December to 1149 compared with 2629 in November.
However, one-third of this month’s arrivals has been intercepted in the past 24 hours. Two boats carrying 65 asylum-seekers were intercepted overnight Sunday off Christmas Island.
Senior government sources have told The Australian that while the wild weather accompanying the monsoon season was having a significant role in preventing boats from leaving Indonesian ports, the impact of Labor’s new border-protection policies was understood to be having an effect - particularly on arrivals from Sri Lanka, The Australian reports.
