Word: boated
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...tranquil tropical idyll. But for professional border-watchers - officials of the Australian Customs Service, Federal Police, Quarantine and Inspection Service, Navy and Immigration department - it is the front line in the struggle to keep Australia economically sound, environmentally clean and safe from unwanted pests - and guests. The number of boat people has plummeted since the federal government introduced tough new policies in the wake of 2001's Tampa incident. In 2000-01, 4,000 people entered Australia illegally by sea; since 2002, not a single boat person has reached the mainland...
...Isolated though it is, the Strait is alive with activity: there are container vessels, fishing trawlers, supply barges, pleasure yachts and the small craft of Torres Strait Islanders and visiting Papua New Guineans. Among them are the boats of people trying to exploit cracks in the system to fish illegally and traffic in drugs, firearms and people. Starting on Thursday Island, the region's administrative hub, Time tags along with marine and land-based Customs officers to find out exactly what border protection means in this key outpost. "It's busy - or it's busier," says Steve Jeffs, Customs' Torres...
...Even at this early stage, Coastwatch officers, such as Steve "Loopy" Guerin, have a fair idea what they'll find. "From the standard of dress and the type of boat, we can usually tell where the crew are from." A typical FFV has several options for escape. Depending on its location, it can scoot back to the high seas or to the P.N.G. side of the fishing zone, or at least ditch its catch and equipment. In this case, the 7-m wooden fishing boat (designated a "Type 3") is too far inside Australian waters to flee. Instead, the Customs...
...Botany Bay drops anchor a nautical mile from the Duncan Islands. Coastwatch has called the ACV with an update of the FFV's location. Because radar can't detect small boats, the binoculars are out on the bridge. The FFV is spotted! There's a rush of excitement and purpose as the four officers who make up a boarding party assemble on the aft deck and load up their kits: life jackets, 9-mm Glock semi-automatics, telescopic batons, capsicum spray, handcuffs, assorted tools, water supply, radio. The sailors climb aboard an outboard-powered tender which is lowered into...
...elephants, but seems oddly muted here, perhaps to suit his sober theme. The cast around him works hard, including pros like Roger Bart (who replaced Saturday Night Live?s Chris Kattan at the last minute) and comic John Byner (slyly underplaying as Charon, the wisecracking pilot of the boat to Hades). And director Susan Stroman (The Producers) has pitched in with everything from bungee cords and backflipping frogs. It all might have worked if the central conceit didn?t seem so fusty and out of touch. Summoning George Bernard Shaw to save the nation? How many people today even know...