A group of people are believed to be on the run in north Queensland after authorities located a deserted boat.
Australian Border Force said it is responding to what is believed to be an illegal fishing vessel in the Daintree River area in Far North Queensland.
ABF officers are onsite and Queensland police are providing "ancillary law enforcement assistance".
The Department of Home Affairs has confirmed 11 people have been located.
In a statement, a Department spokesperson said their first priority was to confirm the safety and welfare of the people onboard the vessel.
Daintree tourism operator David Patterson said local fishermen in the region were surprised to see the foreign vessel floating in the river.
"I'd just done a fishing tour at the mouth of the Daintree this morning and we saw this boat that looked like Chinese junk near Cape Kimberley," he said.
"It was empty and apparently, other boaties were saying over the radio, it was adrift and before that people were seen leaving it and running off into the bush at Cape Kimberley.
"We saw this boat and didn't think a lot of it really, then after the radio chatter [we heard] it was deserted and people were seen leaving it."
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