Australian Border Force officials remove suspected asylum seekers from Beagle Bay after boat arrival

Another group of foreign nationals have turned up in Western Australia's remote north, following the discovery of about two dozen men near the tiny Indigenous community of Beagle Bay on Friday morning.

The ABC understands 13 men walked into the Pender Bay campsite, about 30 kilometres north of Beagle Bay, late on Friday afternoon, bringing the total number of arrivals to more than 35.

They told locals they were from Bangladesh and India.

Local residents have been mounting their own searches of the coastline amid fears there could be more arrivals yet to be discovered.

Pender Bay campsite is a remote tourist destination managed by a local Indigenous family.

At least two dozen men, who claimed to be from Pakistan and Bangladesh, were found by Beagle Bay locals on Friday morning along dirt tracks leading into the community.

They were in two groups, with about 21 discovered early on Friday, and a further three close to midday.

The initial arrivals told locals they had arrived by boat from Indonesia, but it's not clear whether the third group arrived on the same vessel or a separate one.

Beagle Bay locals told the ABC the men left the community in a bus on Saturday, having apparently spent the night at the local school.

ABC reporter Rosanne Maloney, who is in the region, said the bus turned off toward Derby, more than 200km north of Broome, before heading in the direction of the Curtin RAAF base.

A Nauru Airlines plane left the Curtin base mid-morning, arriving at Broome International Airport shortly after. Flight tracker FlightAware shows a Nauru Airlines plane left Broome at about 10:30pm AWST on Saturday before travelling to Curtin base and departing from there at 12:32am, landing in Amberley base in Queensland. The plane is now travelling to Nauru. 

Australia has an offshore immigration detention centre at Nauru.

It's unclear whether any of the men are on board the plane.

One of the men told the ABC they had spent five days on a boat from Indonesia, then had to walk about 35 kilometres from a remote beach before being discovered. 

The group of 24 were transferred to a kindergarten classroom at the local school late on Friday afternoon, as the Australian Border Force (ABF) organised where to accommodate them for the night.

At one point a school employee was seen carrying makeshift bedding into the building.

At least two of the men had visible injuries, and were driven to the local community clinic for treatment.

News of the boat arrival caused political shock waves — reigniting a debate amongst federal leaders over border policy — but came as no surprise to northern residents, who've been raising concerns about undetected foreign boats turning up close to shore in recent years.

In the 1990s, foreign boat arrivals were a common occurrence on WA's northern coast.

But it's been years since asylum seekers have arrived unannounced on the coastline, leading to surreal scenes as authorities scrambled to work out how to physically detain and process the men.

For at least two hours the groups sat under trees at a public park, with two local police officers supervising the scene as they waited for federal authorities to travel from Broome.

In the past, foreign nationals found in northern WA have been flown to immigration detention in Darwin, but the ABF is remaining tight-lipped about what will happen to the men.

At least one of the men has told the ABC he plans to apply for asylum.

The boat is believed to have come ashore near a cluster of Indigenous-run tourism campgrounds on the coast about 150 kilometres north of Broome.

The area attracts thousands of visitors during the tourist season, but is difficult to access in the early months of the year due to wet season conditions.

Recovery effort continues

The men who arrived on Friday were discovered in two separate groups, each by a local family who happened to be driving on the corrugated tracks.

Twenty-one men are believed to have been located first, with another three found several hours later.

It remains unknown whether all the travellers have been accounted for.

On Friday afternoon several police cars were seen departing the community, apparently heading to the area where the men were initially discovered.

Beagle Bay residents told the ABC they believed another group of men had been located and the police had been dispatched to try to locate them.

A late afternoon storm cut off access to some coastal areas, and authorities have not confirmed whether the boat or boats involved have been located.

'I don't want to go back'

Beagle Bay resident Melissa Smith was among the first to see the initial group of men arrive in the community.

Her parents had come across the first 21 men by chance, on a track near their family block.

"My mum and dad came in from the block and they had a lot of people in their car. The whole community was asking the question: 'Who were they and what they were doing here?'" she said.

"The conditions were very hot. Some of them seemed dizzy, and [were] wobbling a bit."

She says locals have mixed feelings about the situation.

"I think some people are worried about it, and some people feel sorry for them," she said.

"Normally when you find people like that on the road, you give them a hand. Especially people that don't know this country — you bring them in where they can get help.

"Hopefully they'll get to where they want to, but I don't think they will."

One of the men has told the ABC the trip was organised in Indonesia by a man promising to take the men to Darwin.

He told the ABC he had lived in Australia previously, but had been deported back to Pakistan because of a visa issue.

"In Pakistan the situation is very bad. They tortured me … they captured my property, many things they did with me," he said.

"I don't want to go back to Pakistan."

Safety concerns

Local Liberal MP Neil Thomson said the group’s safe arrival sends the wrong message to people seeking asylum along WA’s hard coastline.

“The issue of human safety in relation to these asylum seekers is a major concern,” he said.

“For the unprepared who come onto that coastline, it can be an incredibly dangerous place to be.”