(Reuters) — Australian police have detained five men suspected of planning to sail a small boat from the far north of the country on to Indonesia and the Philippines and finally to Syria to join Islamic State, officials said on Wednesday (May 11).
The men were held on Tuesday (May 10) after towing the seven-meter boat almost 3,000 km (1,865 miles) from Melbourne to Cairns in Queensland state, police said.
“There have been reports that seem to be downplaying this somewhat, I wanted to be perfectly clear, this is a serious attempt by five men who are of a security interest to us, who have had their passports canceled in attempting to exit Australia, so that they can make their way through boat and then, ultimately, we’re investigating the intention to possibly end up in Syria to fight,” Victoria state Deputy Police Commissioner Shane Patton told reporters in Melbourne.
Australia has come under criticism for its tough immigration policies aimed at stopping asylum seekers taking boats from Indonesia to Australia, but few are believed to have attempted the journey in the opposite direction.
Police said it was unclear where the men, aged between 21 and 33, had planned to put the boat in the water.
“We’re investigating the allegation they were planning to make their way through Indonesia to the Philippines, with a view to ending up in Syria. Where they were going to get into the water? You know, the top of Australia is a very big place but somewhere up there,” Patton added.
“It’s not a common occurrence, I would suggest, people trying to get to Syria via boat, but I don’t have the exact figures for sure. But we do know that a lot of people are trying to get to Syria to fight and so we continue to disrupt where we can.”
The five had not yet been charged. Under tough new security powers passed in 2014, Australians face up to a decade in prison for overseas travel to areas declared off limits, which includes the province of Raqqa in Syria, a key strategic hub for Islamic State militants.
Australia, a staunch U.S. ally, has been on heightened alert for attacks by home-grown radicals since 2014 and authorities say they have thwarted a number of potential attacks, while there have been several “lone wolf” assaults, including a cafe siege in Sydney that left two hostages and the gunman dead.
Approximately 100 people have left Australia for Syria to fight alongside organizations such as Islamic State, Australia’s Immigration Minister said last month.
Indonesia and Australia share a maritime border, but it spans several hundred kilometers of open sea at its narrowest point.
The Australian Broadcasting Corp said that Melbourne-born radical preacher Musa Cerantonio, a vocal supporter of the Islamic State who was deported from the Philippines to Australia in 2014, was among those detained.
Cerantonio, who converted to Islam from Catholicism at 17, was believed to be planning to join Islamic State when he was deported for having “invalid travel documentation”. He was placed under surveillance but not arrested upon his return.