Boat carrying 150 asylum seekers intercepted off Christmas Island A boat carrying asylum-seekers, believed to be from Sri Lanka, is intercepted off Christmas Island in June last year. Picture: Daniel Wilkins Source: The Australian AN asylum seeker boat with 153 people on board has been intercepted near Christmas Island. The boat, which has the largest number of passengers since October 2012, was given assistance by an Australian navy vessel on Wednesday after it asked for help. Its 150 passengers and three crew were transferred to Christmas Island for security and health checks. They risk being sent to Australia's offshore processing centres on Nauru and Papua New Guinea's Manus Island. It comes as Immigration Minister Brendan O'Connor insisted the Sri Lankan asylum seekers who managed to reach Geraldton on a boat, and were later returned home, were not genuine refugees. Of the 66 asylum seekers who reached the West Australian port last week, 38 were returned to Colombo yesterday. Mr O'Connor says the remaining 28 will have their refugee claims assessed. He denied Australia was acting in an "injudicious manner" in returning the failed Sri Lankan asylum seekers. "We are ensuring that our obligations in accordance with the (United Nations) Refugee Convention are fulfilled," he said. Sending the boat's passengers back to their homeland would send a very powerful message to other people considering the dangerous boat journey to Australia that there would be no guarantees of settlement. Mr O'Connor said with 46 million displaced people around the world, Australia as a wealthy nation had "an obligation to assist." But we must ensure that when we dedicate resources to provide places for people fleeing persecution that those places must be filled with people who are genuinely fleeing persecution. Meanwhile, Mr O'Connor said there was no evidence to support media claims that an asylum seeker boat had been spotted near Arnhem Land on Thursday. "The media should confirm these matters before reporting them," he said.