Hotel taken over to detain illegal Indonesian fishers

A surge in the number of Indonesians caught fishing illegally in Australia's northern waters has forced authorities to take over a city hotel to house them ahead of their court cases.

The makeshift detention centre is in Darwin's inner city Frontier Hotel, which is closed to the public and guarded by uniformed employees of service provider MTC.

When AAP visited the hotel on Wednesday morning, notices on the doors said access was strictly limited to authorised personnel.

In the foyer grey-shirted employees of MTC said the hotel was closed to the public but they could not provide any further information.

Australian Fisheries Management Authority data shows more than 240 foreign fishers have been prosecuted in the Darwin Local Court since July 2024, up from 75 the previous year.

With Darwin no longer having a dedicated detention centre for such detainees the hotel has become an alternative holding centre.

The fishermen, who lose their boats when detained by Australian navy or border force patrols, are often handed good behaviour bonds after pleading guilty to illegal fishing charges and sent back to Indonesia.

The Australian Border Force pointed AAP to the Migration Act 1958 that places a legal duty on the Department of Home Affairs, including the border force, to remove unlawful non-citizens in immigration detention as soon as reasonably practicable.