Navy sends Vietnamese back home

The Abbott Government has confirmed it returned almost 50 asylum seekers to Vietnam in an extraordinary new phase of its boat turn-back regime.

_The West Australian _revealed last week that HMAS Choules was standing by off the coast of Vietnam to hand over a big group of asylum seekers.

The Government refused to make public any details of efforts to push back or turn back asylum boats.

The mission also raised alarm in the Australian Vietnamese community, with fears the group could be punished by Hanoi for their attempt to flee.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said yesterday the navy had returned 46 boat people to Vietnam. Mr Dutton thanked the Vietnamese Government for its co-operation in the handover.

"We've been able to safely return those 46 people to Vietnam, we've been able to do that with the assistance of the Vietnamese Government and we've also done it meeting out international obligations under the treaties," he said.

When _The West Australian _last exposed details of a secret navy mission to turn back asylum boats, the head of Customs and Border Protection Service asked the Australian Federal Police to investigate the leak.

It is believed this latest group of Vietnamese asylum seekers were picked up by a Customs vessel to Australia's north.

They were processed at sea and put aboard the Choules for the journey home.

Yesterday, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop appeared to contradict Tony Abbott after the Prime Minister suggested Europe copy Australia's turn-back policy.

There have been a series of recent asylum disasters in the Mediterranean, leading for calls from some in Europe for a tougher line to deter boat arrivals.

Mr Abbott said on Tuesday the only way to stop deaths at sea was to "stop the boats".

But speaking in Berlin, Ms Bishop said what worked in one place might not work in another.