A boatload of asylum seekers believed to be on their way to Australia have shown up on a tiny Micronesian island about 2,000km north of Papua New Guinea.
The 35 Indian and Nepalese men and two Indonesian crew members arrived on the island of Yap on Monday. People smugglers reportedly told them they would be taken to Australia from the Pacific island country.
Yap’s police chief, Fanian Damngin, told reporters government officials were on their way to the island to speak to the asylum seekers. They are being held in custody near the island’s dock and have been given food, water and medical checks.
The group, who reportedly left Indonesia on 10 November, are not asking Micronesia for asylum, Damngin said.
Phil Dor, an Australian clam farmer who lives on Yap, spoke to the Indonesian crew. They told him they had been given about $1,500 to transport the asylum seekers in a fishing boat.
“This is a completely first event for Yap and nobody exactly knows what’s going to happen,” Dor told the ABC.
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