The Northern Land Council has confirmed to that four people, believed to be foreign nationals, have been found on the remote Northern Territory Croker Island. The Northern Land Council said the men told traditional owners they had paid someone money to be taken to Australia.
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00:00The four men who were found on Croker Island were discovered by Aboriginal rangers who
00:06were patrolling the coastline.
00:08Those rangers said that they saw a vessel on Sunday evening on the northwest side of
00:13the island.
00:14But the men weren't found until Monday and the NLC didn't confirm their discovery to
00:18the ABC until today.
00:20The information has been very limited.
00:22We went to the Australian Border Force who have declined to comment at this stage.
00:27We also went to NT Police who say that the matter has been deferred to the Australian
00:31Border Force.
00:32We don't yet know where these men have come from and whether they were just here fishing
00:37or whether they were asylum seekers trying to enter Australia.
00:41What we do know is what the NLC have told us.
00:43They say that the men told traditional owners on the island that they had paid someone money
00:49to bring them to Australia on the boat.
00:51They also told traditional owners that they were exhausted and suffering from the effects
00:56of the extreme heatwave that we have here in the Northern Territory at the moment.
01:00NT politician Manuel Brown, whose electorate covers Croker Island, has described the men
01:06as asylum seekers, but we are still waiting on confirmation of that.
01:10To give you a bit more information about where they were found, Croker Island is an extremely
01:14remote part of the Northern Territory.
01:17It's about 250 kilometres northeast of where I am here in Darwin.
01:23It's only accessible by sea and it's a very small community, so that's making the information
01:29between us and the island quite difficult.
01:32The NLC have reported, though, across the Top End, they've seen an influx of foreign
01:37vessels in their waters.
01:39Just last week, they reported a vessel was hiding in the mangroves in the Northern Territory
01:44community of Maningrida.
01:46The week before that, a community in Warrawee reported that there was a boat camping out
01:52on their beach and that their cars had been broken into when their fuel was stolen.
01:57And in this incident on Croker Island, two sharks have reportedly washed up, their carcasses
02:02have washed up on the shores of the beach with their tails and their fins missing.
02:07So this influx of foreign vessels in Top End waters has raised concerns about the Territory
02:13Sustainable Fishing Management Plans, about border security and also about community safety.