Bali may be new link in people-smuggling chain People smugglers 'mixing up their routes' Indonesia correspondent Michael Bachelard says it's unusual for asylum seekers to dock in Bali, where 61 people are engaged in a stand-off with police. The asylum seeker vessel that was apprehended in Bali's Benoa harbour on Sunday was the first to try to sail from the holiday island, giving rise to speculation that people smugglers may be testing out a new route to Australia. The last of the 96 men, women and children on the boat, some of them Iranians, disembarked at about 4am on Monday Sydney time, after almost 24 hours resisting Indonesian authorities. They were moved into three hotels. Another group of 42 refugees, who were caught separately in two locations near Denpasar, are being held in Jimbaran detention centre. The 42 had flown into the busy Ngurah Rai International Airport in Denpasar, obtained visas on arrival, then over-stayed. The group on the boat had no travel documents. Journey cut short: Asylum seekers are taken off a boat in Bali. Authorities are trying to determine their nationalities. There is evidence the group on the boat arrived in Bali in April and have been lying low since. Bali water-police chief Rai Suandi said the boat on Sunday was the first asylum-seeker vessel to try to sail from Bali. "This possibly is a new modus operandi," Immigration Department spokesman Moroloan Barimbing said. Neither police nor immigration authorities can yet say where most of the refugees came from, who the people smugglers are, and why they were sailing from Bali. Boats normally take the shortest routes to Australia, either from Java to Christmas Island, or from West Timor to Ashmore Reef. Dozens of boats have landed in these two places recently. The Bali boat may have been heading for the West Australian coast. Balinese police are questioning the two crew members, who say they are from West Timor. Until authorities have had a chance to talk to the asylum seekers they will not know if it was to be a one-off voyage, or an attempt by smugglers to find a new route to Australia through Ngurah Rai International Airport. Mr Moroloan said the asylum seekers had refused to meet his officers and would not come out of their hotel rooms. Once they were identified, authorities would contact their embassies. "If they have a return ticket we will deport them back to their country," he said. As for refugee status, that's up to UNHCR [United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees] to determine. If they make a claim as asylum seekers, we have to honour that and allow the UNHCR to assess them.