Matthew Zagor writes: " Yet asylum-seekers who arrive illegally in Australia, unlike the people who traffic in them, are committing no crime."

I'd like to ask Matthew Zagor a few factual questions : Who are "the people who traffic in them [asylum-seekers]"? What do you actually know about these so-called "traffickers" , apart from what you may have read in AFP and DIMIA and IOM and Australian Institute of Criminology propaganda and unsourced hearsay? What reputable academic sources can you cite that have enhanced your understanding of who or what the "traffickers" from Indonesia to Australia may be?

In any case, you're using the word "trafficker" incorrectly - people trafficking has a specific meaning, i.e., the criminal transport of vulnerable people usually women and children across borders, then to put them to work in exploitative indentured occupations like prostitution, low-wage domestic service, or sweatshop factory work.

"People smuggling" has a different accepted meaning, closer to your theme. It is, simply, helping people who want to move from one country to another. It is important that in opposing Howard's cruel and ugly border protection practices - and I know you are resisting them - one does not fall into the trap of accepting his language and the assumptions underlying that language. I don't know yet who the real people smugglers from Indonesia to Australia are. We may be surprised to discover who they really are.

Face it, they are illegal economic migrants.
All the trendy waffle in the world will not change it.
They came here to migrate.

Sorry the inn is full, we have run out of water and thats that !