Australia is to give Malaysia two patrol boats to help the South-East Asian country fight human trafficking, a Malaysian maritime official said today.

The official said the two Bay Class patrol boats would be handed over to the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency in the middle of 2015.

“Australian officers will provide training to our men in operating the patrol boats,” he said, requesting anonymity because he was not allowed to talk about the issue.

The agreement was reached yesterday during a meeting in Malaysia between Scott Morrison, Australia’s minister for immigration and border protection, and Amdan Kurish, the general-director of the Maritime Enforcement Agency.

Many mainly Middle Eastern asylum seekers try to reach Australia by sea, travelling via Malaysia and Indonesia.

During the now opposition Labor party’s six years in office beginning 2007, 812 boats arrived in Australia with 51,000 asylum seekers. The conservative government of Prime Minister Tony Abbott has taken a harder line in trying to the cut the number of arrivals by boat.

- dpa