BANGKOK: Australia has faced a death toll due to people-smuggling on a scale similar to the loss of 58 Chinese nationals at the British port of Dover last month, Australia's Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock said.

But while British Customs agents uncovered the 58 remains of Chinese from Fujian province in the back of the lorry, many of those attempting to enter Australia, often on rickety boats, are entirely lost at sea.

Mr Ruddock said in April alone a vessel containing more than 200 people coming from Indonesia was lost in northern waters off Australia.

'The facts are there was a vessel which we believe had 220 people on board that left Indonesia and hasn't been seen again,' Mr Ruddock said.

'Now I can't show you the remains of the vessel or the dead bodies. But around the detention centres in Australia, people know the names of those who were on the vessels - and there was more than one - that we believe was lost,' he said.

A vessel with around 70 people and another also with about 50 persons on board were also recently lost at sea.

'We've had it (a tragedy similar to that of Dover)... with deaths. But we don't know - and what we haven't been able to see - is actually what it was like to drown," he told a press conference.

Two survivors among the Chinese who attempted to enter Britain gave grim accounts of how the back of the airconditioned vegetable-carrying truck was sealed, the 58 dying from suffocation.

But there has been survivors from shipwrecks coming into Australia. Three Sri Lankans were picked up at sea and told Australian authorities that there had been 14 others on the boat. 'The others were not located,' Mr Ruddock said.

Australian authorities estimate that almost 400 people perished at sea in the last 12 months in people-smuggling attempts, from the 4,000 arriving clandestinely.

'We know the 4,000 people who arrived since July last year were on boats from Indonesia,' Mr Ruddock said.

Australia has stepped up a campaign to seek cooperation from regional countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand to stem the flow of illegal immigrants and people smuggling gangs.

Eighty-five per cent of those illegally entering Australia by boat are transiting through Malaysia to Indonesia, where they island-hop to Australia.

People, often from the Middle East, seeking entry into Australia are transiting Kuala Lumpur and paying smuggling syndicates between $US4000 ($A6800) and $US5000 ($A8500).

Mr Ruddock's visit to Thailand has been part of a five-nation tour that includes talks with officials and ministers from Singapore, Malaysia, India and France.

The visit follows similar visits to the Middle East, Europe, China and Indonesia.

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