Australian authorities have prevented at least 18 boats, from countries including Sri Lanka, carrying asylum-seekers from arriving in the country since the conservative government came to power in September 2013, an official said Monday.

In January the government said “15 returns of various forms” had taken place, including boats turned back to Indonesia and Sri Lanka.
The commander of Australia’s anti-people smuggling Operation Sovereign Borders, Major General Andrew Bottrell, said Monday the figure had now risen to 18.

Under Australia’s immigration policy asylum-seekers arriving on boats are sent to Pacific camps and vessels are turned back when it is safe to do so, or taken back to their country of origin.

This includes a boatload of 46 people returned to Vietnam, reportedly on an Australian navy vessel, in April. “While I’m acutely aware of the interest surrounding the release of information, the success of Operation Sovereign Borders has been in part due to the denial of operational information from people-smugglers,” Bottrell said.

Since July 2013 Australia has sent asylum-seekers arriving on boats to detention centres on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island and on Nauru. They are denied resettlement in Australia even if they are subsequently found to be genuine refugees. - Economic Times