Australia to use Indigenous rangers to patrol coast for asylum seekers

29/1/2025 18:03

Australia said on Wednesday it would enlist indigenous Aboriginal rangers to patrol its vast and remote northern coastline amid an influx of illegal fishing boats that have also been used by people smugglers.



The Australian Border Force said it had boosted aerial surveillance and intercepted 20 foreign fishing vessels since launching an operation in the Northern Territory in December, after several incidents in 2024 where asylum seekers were discovered coming ashore in remote Arnhem Land.



Although the number of boat arrivals is small, compared to 15,000 asylum seekers travelling to Australia by boat annually before the country set up an offshore processing scheme, the issue has become heated in the lead-up to a national election due by May.



Australia's Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said the federal government would equip Indigenous rangers to patrol the 10,000-km northern coastline.



"No-one knows that sea country better than those rangers," he told reporters in Darwin.



Australia does not allow asylum seekers who arrive by boat to settle in the country, instead flying them to the Pacific Island nation of Nauru for assessment of refugee claims, in a process criticised by the United Nations Human Rights Committee.