An Indonesian fishing boat most likely carrying asylum seekers was intercepted by Australian officials after it reached within 200 metres from the Christmas Island on Friday. It not clear whether the boat was intercepted by the Australian Border Force or Australian Navy before it was sent back to sea.

The boat made it within 200 metres of the Flying Fish Cove, the first to reach that far since June 2014. According to sources on the island, the arrivals could not be counted because the boat was covered with tarpaulin. Each person on board was given life jackets and the boat drifted farther away from the island, according to witnesses.

Gordon Thomson, the shire president of the island, said the locals spotted the boat early on Friday within 100 to 200 metres from Smith Point. But by the time he arrived, the boat was already being sent back into the sea by an Australian Navy patrol boat.

“I saw the navy patrol boat towing the Indonesian fishing boat out to sea away from Christmas Island,” he told AAP. “It's a wicked thing to do.”

He said that since 2009, the federal government has stopped informing him about the boats approaching the island. He said he hoped that the boat had been checked of its seaworthiness before being sent back into the sea.

Though the boat appeared to be an Indonesian fishing boat, it is not clear from where the asylum seekers came from. The route from south-west Java to Christmas Island is taken by asylum seekers to Australia.

The federal government has refused to provide any information on the matter. Government frontbencher Steve Ciobo said that any such arrival would be dealt offshore and would not find place in Australia, but he refused to confirm the reports.

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