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Three Pakistani seafarers who jumped over the side of their livestock ship into Fremantle harbour in an apparent asylum bid will be deported, the Immigration Department has said.
The men had arrived in the WA port on the Bahamas-flagged Bader III late last week and docked at the multi-user number two berth.
On Thursday last week the trio jumped overboard and swam to DP World's number three berth but could not get through the security gates.
"It's a secured zone so they wouldn't have been able to get out of that area," said Dean Summers, the national coordinator for the International Transport Workers Federation (ITWF).
"I understand after that the Border Force was engaged and took those seafarers off to detention."
The Department of Immigration and Border Protection said the men would be deported.
"The ABF can confirm that three Pakistani nationals attempted to desert their ship in Fremantle last week," the department said.
"The individuals were quickly located and have subsequently been transferred to immigration detention pending their removal from Australia.
"Their removal is consistent with Australia's obligations."
The Bader III is a flag of convenience ship now en route to the southern Israeli port of Eilat.
The ITWF has signed a minimum international standards agreement with the ship's owners, and Mr Summers said its crew would have been "relatively well-paid".
It is not the first time Pakistani nationals have jumped ship at Australian ports.
In June 2012, seven men were arrested by immigration authorities after walking off a different livestock ship in Fremantle.
Topics: immigration, sea-transport, fremantle-6160