THE largest contingent of asylum seekers - 187 people - arrived at Christmas Island yesterday aboard supply ship HMAS Tobruk.
The ship had been steaming to the island and its immigration processing facility with 138 refugees and 12 defence escorts on board, when it was diverted to collect another 49 rescued from a sinking boat by the crew of patrol boat HMAS Maryborough off Broome in WA.
HMAS Tobruk will anchor off the island for 48 hours.
It was expected the transfer of the 187, 20 at a time, by a barge crewed by Customs officials, would take all day.
Unloading began yesterday. The arrivals were given health, quarantine and baggage checks before being sent to an immigration facility or detention camp.
A total of 387 people now are being processed by immigration officials at the island facility.
Before yesterday's influx, 310 were on the island of which 198 were in the detention centre, 79 in a temporary camp and 33 were in community detention.
Most of the new arrivals, including all single adult males, will go the centre
Due to the large number of fresh arrivals it is unlikely that the government's 90-day processing time frame will be met for all the potential refugees.
Navy and Customs vessels and aircraft are stretched to breaking point and Immigration officials are overwhelmed by the biggest influx of boat people since the government softened its policy last year.
So far this year 11 boats have been intercepted and 18 have been picked up since the government policy changed last September.
They have carried a total of 676 men, women and children including 479 from the 11 boats this year.
Most of the boat people have come from Iraq and Afghanistan with a smattering of Sri Lankans displaced by civil war and other nationalities and thousands more are ready to make the perilous ocean journey.
HMAS Tobruk will depart from the island tomorrow and will remain under the control of Border Protection Command.
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