Three Vietnamese families returned by Australian authorities last year have again fled the country by boat.

Their lawyer Vo An Don wrote on social media that the families of Tran Thi Thanh Loan, Tran Thi Lua and Tran Thi Phuc left Vietnam on August 31 and are currently passing Indonesian waters and heading to Australia.

Don also said Loan and Lua told him on the phone that they will drown themselves at sea if the Australian government does not accept them and decides to return them to Vietnam.

All three families fled to Australia in 2015 but were returned to Vietnam the same year.

Some were sentenced to a total of six years in prison by a court in Binh Thuan province on Vietnam’s southeast coast.

Don said he was shocked by the news, and told the family they would face old and new judgments of 7 to 10 years in prison if they were returned by Australia.

The Australian government has a zero-tolerance position towards unauthorised boat arrivals under its Operation Sovereign Borders policy.

– TiVi Tuan-san