Migrant boat 'never would have made it' to NZ - activist

From Morning Report, 8:21 am on 7 May 2018

An Australian refugee rights activist says a tanker smuggling Sri Lankan immigrants would never have made it to Australia, let alone New Zealand. Malaysian authorities halted the modified tanker with 131 people on board on Tuesday and arrested three Indonesians and four Malaysians. They said they were part of a people-smuggling syndicate with links to New Zealand and Australia and the ship could have been on its way here. Ian Rintoul from Australia's Refugee Action Coalition told RNZ reporter Tom Furley the rusting ship was incapable of getting this far.