Updated ,first published
Two people are in custody and foreign nationals have been detained after a boat carrying asylum seekers landed in Far North Queensland.
Nine News reported the boat was intercepted at Weipa, about 2000 kilometres north-west of Brisbane, on Tuesday.
It said about a dozen people, believed to be Chinese nationals, were onboard, including two alleged people-smugglers.
The group were on land for hours. Footage obtained by Nine News shows them walking through a Weipa shopping centre and buying food from a bakery.
Joshua Lyon from Weipa Bakery & Cafe said the pair of alleged people-smugglers were relaxed during the arrest.
“I just thought they were checking a few possible visas and stuff.”
Campers reported the boat’s arrival, but the group had left before border force agents arrived.
A spokesperson for the Australian Border Force initially told this masthead it would “not comment on, or confirm, operational matters”.
It subsequently confirmed a 34-year-old Taiwanese man had been charged with one count of “aggravated offence of people smuggling [involving at least five persons]”.
He appeared remotely before Cairns Magistrates Court on Wednesday and was remanded in custody. He is scheduled to appear before the same court on July 2.
A second 30-year-old man, of unknown nationality, was detained under the Migration Act pending further inquiries.
ABF would not confirm to Nine News where the foreign nationals were being held.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke issued a statement on Thursday, saying “the operation in Weipa has now concluded”.
“Every person who attempted to enter Australia without a visa has now been removed. Those who assisted them will face the full force of the law,” he said.
A day earlier, Queensland Police Minister Dan Purdie called the border breach an embarrassment for the Albanese government.
“The federal government needs to secure our borders,” he said.
Nationals MP David Littleproud said he was concerned this would start a wave of new illegal boat arrivals.
“They’ve found a chink in the armour,” he said.
Queensland Police and the Australian Federal Police declined to comment.
Weipa is a remote community on the western coast of the Cape York Peninsula, within 400 kilometres of Papua New Guinea’s mainland.
Six Chinese nationals were found wandering around the outback community of Kalumburu, on Western Australia’s remote northern coast, late last year.
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