Three more boats arrive at Christmas Island, one believed to be from Sri Lanka

Three more asylum boats have arrived at Christmas Island in the hours following federal parliament’s failure to agree on a way of halting the flow of boatpeople to Australia. One boat carrying 44 asylum-seekers, believed to be from Sri Lanka, was intercepted by officials from Border Protection Command late last night and was escorted into Christmas Island’s Flying Fish Cove, The Australian reported.

Passengers remain on board the moored boat this morning waiting to be taken ashore.

Within hours another boat arrived off the island and was this morning being escorted by the navy into Flying Fish Cove.

It is unclear how many people are aboard the second boat or where they are from. Later this morning, authorities said they were preparing to intercept a third boat about 30 nautical miles from Christmas Island. The new boat arrivals came as federal parliament broke up for its winter break with no solution to the deadlock over asylum-seeker policy.

They also follow the interception on Wednesday night of a boat carrying 93 Sri Lankan men, woman and children. They arrived as 130 survivors from the vessel which sank north of Christmas Island on Wednesday were also taken ashore. On Sunday, another boat from Sri Lanka arrived carrying 60 people while last week the island received 110 survivors from the boat which capsized last week in the seas between Christmas Island and Indonesia. There are currently around 1300 detainees on the island.