Eight illegal immigrants believed to be from China have been apprehended in the Northern Territory.
Six were discovered on May 27 near the town of Maningrida in Arnhem Land, 500km east of Darwin, and two more were discovered by aboriginal rangers the next day, ABC News reported.
All eight have since been taken into custody by the Australia Border Force.
A source familiar with the operation told the ABC the illegal immigrants are believed to have arrived by sea, but authorities have not discovered a boat, suggesting they may have been smuggled into Australia by Indonesian fishermen.
Opposition Home Affairs spokesman Minster Andrew Hastie said the reports suggested the Labor government needed to focus on border security.
“We should have unblinking surveillance on our northern approaches, but instead we have illegal boats penetrating our borders and people making it ashore. This signals weakness to the people smugglers that business is back on under Labor,” he said.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke then accused newly appointed Mr Hastie of “already providing talking points that will be used by criminal people smugglers”, but did not comment on the incident.
In May last year nine other Chinese illegal immigrants landed in Western Australia before being arrested, and weeks later six other Chinese men, including an alleged smuggler, were intercepted by Indonesian authorities.
The arrests come months after a Chinese illegal immigrant pleaded guilty to sending about 5 million scam texts while living in Townsville. He was given a suspended sentence and ordered to leave Australia.
Chinese illegal immigrant numbers have surged in the United States in recent years, with encounters by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at the US-Mexico border jumping from 2,200 in 2022 to 24,300 in 2023 and 38,200 in 2024.
Header image: Six Chinese would-be illegals after being apprehended by Indonesian authorities last year (supplied).
