A group of six foreign nationals who police say travelled to Australia by boat have been detained after they were discovered in a remote community at the northern tip of Western Australia.
An off-duty police officer located two men 12km north of Kalumburu on Monday, Western Australia Police said in a statement.
"It was established the men had arrived in Australia via an unknown vessel, as part of a group," the statement said.
"Police conducted a search for the remaining group members and located four additional men in the Kalumburu area on Tuesday."
SBS News understands the individuals have been detained by the Australian Border Force. The ABF said it would not comment on operational matters.
Western Australia Police said the men were taken to Kalumburu Multi-Functional Police Facility for medical assessment.
Kalumburu is located more than 3,000km from Perth, and has a population of 388, according to 2021 Census data.
It follows a similar incident in the north of Western Australia in February last year, in which a group of 20 men, who said they were from Pakistan and Bangladesh, were found in a remote Indigenous community at Beagle Bay.
In November 2023, a dozen Pakistani asylum seekers, believed to have travelled by boat from Indonesia, arrived on a remote stretch of Western Australia's coastline in the Kimberley region.
They were taken to Nauru by the Australian Border Force.
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