Police and Border Force agents are rounding up a boat load of foreign refugees after their fishing vessel ran aground near the mouth of the crocodile-infested Daintree River north of Cairns at the weekend.

Indonesian fishing boat runs aground near the mouth of the croc-infested Daintree River, north of Cairns

So far 11 have been caught but an unknown number remain on the run.

Authorities have been left aghast as the vessel sailed through from the north completely under the radar of Border Force and local shipping.

Federal MP Bob Katter, whose electorate lies just south of the Daintree has accused the government of being asleep at the wheel instead “playing political games in Canberra while Rome continues to burn.”

Long-time border protection protagonist and former Army Reservist Bob Katter has been calling for more surveillance of our northern coastline.

“There should be dozens of fast patrol boats based at Karumba, Gove and Thursday Island with drones and armaments,” Mr Katter said.

Meanwhile the search continues today with the Cairns Police dog squad searching the shoreline and thick mangroves, avoiding the many large crocodiles which inhabit the area.

Police and Border Force agents detain the occupants of a half-sunk Indonesian fishing vessel on the beach while agents comb the mangroves looking for the remainder of the boat’s occupants-pic Cairns Post

Ironically today a State Government Parliamentary committee is taking public evidence in nearby Port Douglas to support the Katters Australian Party’s Safer Waterways bill which would allow crocodile culling and egg collection to reduce the explosion in crocodile numbers across the north.