more and more .........
AS four unlawful entrants were found on a tiny island in the Torres Strait, it is thought that yet another boatload of up to 60 people is headed to Australia.
Home Affairs Minister Bob Debus is yet to confirm the movements of the latest boatload of unlawful entrants which is sailing towards Ashmore Reef 840km west of Darwin.
He is due to make an official statement later today and the revelation will take the total number of boat arrivals to 16 in eight months.
The news comes as it emerged four men, believed to be of South Asian and Middle Eastern origins, had been on Deliverance Island, in Australian waters close to the Indonesian border, since at least last Friday.
Torres Strait Island leaders, in the states northernmost outpost, said the trickle had become a flood of suspected asylum seekers.
The four men have been detained on Horn Island and are likely to be flown to Christmas Island in the next few days.
Mr Debus said a surveillance flight conducted by a Border Protection Command helicopter found the four men about 55km off Papua New Guinea (PNG).
"The four adult males have been transferred by helicopter to Customs and Border Protection temporary detention facilities on Horn Island, where they will be formally detained by DIAC officers," the minister said in a statement.
"They will undergo health, security and other checks to establish their identity and reasons for their voyage and further decisions on processing will be made in due course."
The men did not have a boat with them and it was unclear where they had come from, he said.
"Deliverance Island is an offshore excised place under the Migration Act.
"The Rudd government has maintained the system of excision so that unauthorised arrivals at excised offshore places cannot apply for a refugee visa under the Migration Act unless they raise claims that prima facie may engage Australia's protection obligations," Mr Debus said.
There are 266 people in detention in the Christmas Island immigration facility after a boat carrying 54 asylum seekers was the latest to be intercepted 90 nautical miles southwest of Ashmore Reef on Saturday.
The passengers, along with two crew members, were transferred to HMAS Albany and was due to arrive at the facility today.