MEDIA STATEMENT
7 February 2014
50 Days Of Failure For People Smugglers - Minister for Immigration and Border Protection
The latest Operation Sovereign Borders weekly update reveals that for 50 days there has not been a single successful people smuggling venture to Australia by boat, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, the Hon Scott Morrison said today.
Operation Sovereign Borders is preventing criminal people smugglers from fulfilling their promise of passage to Australia.
Not only will people seeking to come illegally by boat not be settled in Australia, under the Abbott Government's policies they will not get here.
There is still a long way to go but 50 days of failure for the people smugglers should be welcome news to anyone who wants to stop criminal people smugglers putting people's lives at risk.
The last people smuggling venture that made it to Australia and had all passengers handed over to Australian immigration authorities was on December 19 last year.
The Government is also continuing to remove illegal arrivals to Australia who are found not to be in need of Australia’s protection.
This week 45 Sri Lankan nationals were removed to Sri Lanka including 37 involuntary removals.
The Abbott Government is not just stopping the boats as we promised we would do at the last election but we are sending back those arrivals Labor allowed to illegally enter Australia by boat during their failed years in government.
This is the resolve that is needed to get the job done.
This week, during my second visit to Malaysia as Minister, I announced Australia's intention to hand over two Bay Class patrol vessels to Malaysia to enhance the Malaysian Government's maritime enforcement and deterrence capability.
The strong co-operation of the Malaysian Government in efforts to prevent people smuggling as part of the Coalition Government's regional deterrence framework is appreciated.
This latest measure strengthens the agreement with Malaysia secured late last year to further disrupt and prevent people smuggling operations in and through Malaysia by air, land and sea.