First asylum seeker boat in 4 years reaches Australia

An Australian government minister says the first asylum seeker boat has reached Australia in more than four years.

Australia has virtually stopped boat arrivals by using the navy to turn them back and banishing asylum seekers to immigration camps on the poor Pacific island nations of Papua New Guinea and Nauru.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said Monday that several people had arrived in northeastern Australia on a fishing boat from Vietnam.

Dutton blames a failure in surveillance for the boat reaching Cape Kimberley in the World Heritage-listed Daintree Rainforest north of Cairns in Queensland state.