Asylum seeker boat carrying 15 'Chinese nationals' lands in remote region of Western Australia - the THIRD arrival since November

A group of around 15 asylum seekers has arrived by boat to a remote part of Western Australia, in the third such arrival since last November. 

The latest group, who are thought to be Chinese, arrived at the old World War II Truscott Airbase in the far north Kimberley region on Friday afternoon.

WA Police are searching for a man who was onboard the boat, in an incident which has also triggered an Australian Defence Force operation to secure the site.

Sky News reported that about 13 Chinese nationals walked onto the airbase - which is now known as Mungalalu Truscott Airbase and is a commercial airport owned by the Wunambal Gaambera Aboriginal Corporation - at around 4pm on Friday.

More than 100 Australian Defence Force personnel were at the air base on Saturday afternoon, with staff deploying artillery drones in search of other boats and illegal arrivals. 

Following long standing practices, the reports have not been confirmed by the office of Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil, or by Australian Border Force spokespeople.

'The Australian Border Force does not confirm or comment on operational matters,' a spokesperson said.

On Saturday evening, WA Police released a statement confirming they were searching for a man who is 'believed to have become separated from a group of people in the vicinity of Mitchell Plateau,' where the air base is located.

The statement said the 'land search operation is in its preliminary stages and is taking place in an extremely remote area with challenging terrain'.

'WA Police have this afternoon been advised the man may have been a passenger on an unknown vessel carrying a group of people which landed in a remote area of the Kimberley District on Friday, 5 April, 2024.'

Artillery drones were used to search the region on Saturday for any sign of a boat or other arrivals. 

A charter jet reportedly flew from  Mungalalu Truscott Airbase to Perth on Saturday, with some or all of the asylum seekers likely to have been onboard. 

The latest incident is the third unknown boat to have reached the WA coastline in six months.

In February, a boat carrying two groups of 39 Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationals were found on the Dampier Peninsula north of Broome.

The men, dressed in T-shirts and trousers, were reportedly in good health. They were given water at the local Beagle Bay store as temperatures reached 37C.

One of the asylum seekers told the ABC that they had spent five days at sea, travelling from Indonesia to Australia.

After being dropped off on the beach, the group walked for about 35km, he said, before they were picked up by locals.

He said he had paid $8,000 to travel to Australia from Indonesia and hoped to claim asylum so his family could join him. 

In November last year, Sovereign Borders Commander Rear Admiral Justin Jones confirmed a group of 12 refugees surpassed naval border forces.

The all-male group walked through rugged bushland in 35C heat arriving at the same remote airbase where the people who arrived on Friday ended up. 

They were given food and water by airport staff who described them as being in 'poor shape'. 

In both the November and February incidents, the asylum seekers were intercepted by Australian Border Force personnel and taken to an offshore detention centre on the island state of Nauru.