Would you all please look at
http://fora.tv/2010/07/29/Nomad_From_Islam_to_America_with_Ayaan_Hirsi_Ali

Reading the above posts I am beginning to understand some of the subtleties of the argument.
An individual makes an illegal entry to Australia. He/she utters the magic words, “asylum seeker”
to an appropriate official. Low and behold, he is now neither a legal nor illegal until his claim is verified by the appropriate immigration officials. If the claim fails he/she reverts to being an illegal. However, he/she can now appeal to the courts to have the illegal status reverted. Again he/she is in a state of limbo.

Eventually, if the High Court of Australia does not support the asylum seeking claim then he/she is again an illegal and can be deported.
While the claim is been assessed either by officials or the legal process the individual has limited human rights and can be held in detention.

I accept the assurance that mandatory detention is not a punishment as the individual has not been found guilty by a court. Therefore a detention centre can only have a superficial resemblance to a prison.

Of course if the boats could be stopped at source, then this immigration farce over legal/illegal would cease, lives would be saved from perilous sea crossings in leaking boats and finally the poor Australian taxpayer would benefit.

A red herring is being dragged in front of us and as usual a large percentage have followed it.
There are around 180,000 migrants brought into Australia “legally”. About the same amount have in the past been brought in on “special “ visas, because we are supposedly desperate for “skilled “ workers.
In one year 2008, the population of Australia, including net births, went up by 600,000.
How can perhaps six thousand “boat people” possible affect the Australian way of life?
Get real people. The influx of legal migrants is simple to provide a large pool of what eventually will become a supply of cheap labour and is being promoted by big business who are the beneficiaries,
The so called “boat people crisis” is to divert the attention of the masses away from what is being done to them, reducing their standard of living, by flooding the country with cheap labour.
We need to do two things to sort this out.
1. Subtract the number of boat people from the amount of legal migrants.
2. Impose a levy on big business to educate our own workers and provide the skilled workers we need.
Also to save immense amounts of money, we should give up all this offshore processing nonsense, build accommodation near each major city staffed by locals which would act as a stimulus and help the GFC.

Sarnian,

"1.Subtract the number of boat people from the amount of legal migrants."

The number of refugees accepted into Australia each year is about 13500.

Each boat person accepted displaces a refugee through the legal channels that are assessed on need.

Skilled migrants coming to the country are paid for by business and whilst not receiving medicare or subsidised schooling immediately begin paying tax.

The refugees are usually not immediately employable and require housing spending money, language lessons etc, costing the taxpayer up to $50 000 p.a. for the first few years.

Shadow Minister, et al:

The UN Refugee Convention, to which Australia is signatory, recognises that refugees have a lawful, yes, that's lawful right to enter a country for the purposes of seeking asylum.

The Convention stipulates that what would usually be considered an illegal action, eg entering a country without a visa, should not be treated as illegal if a person is seeking asylum.

Australian law, in line with the Convention, also permits unauthorised entry for the purposes of seeking asylum.

Therefore, under Australian law, and under the terms of the Convention we have signed, a person who is seeking asylum has the legal, yes that's legal right to enter this country without papers, and by any method of transport, and has the legal right to remain in this country, until his or her refugee status is established through the proper legal processes, to which, as asylum seekers, they are legally entitled.

This was all re-affirmed by the High Court of Australia in November 2010.

Instead of perpetuating the dissemination of highly inaccurate and misleading information, you could do some research and educate yourselves as to the legal standing of asylum seekers in this country, and the legal differences between asylum seekers and migrants.

It isn’t rocket science and it isn’t hard to find these things out. In fact it’s so easy I’m beginning to think you don’t really want to know.

Sorry, posters, I see I haven’t signed off as Jennifer, only Briar Rose. I’m not trying to conceal my identity, I just forgot.
Jennifer Wilson.

I may be wrong, but I seem to remember that those seeking refuge and fleeing from whatever are supposed to stop in the first country they reach.
Most don't do this, so they must be illegal on this basis alone.
Briar Rose - or is it Jennifer? has no compassion for those displaced by illegal boat people.
Makes you wonder why.
The sooner we have a change of Government and withdraw from this nonsensical UN Convention, the better of genuine refugees will be as will the Australia taxpayer.