Mikk>> Lexi is right.
It is the rest of you who refuse to see the difference between a normal immigrant and an asylum seeker, who is someone fleeing persecution.<<

Fleeing fiscal persecution Mikk? They arrive here unwounded, well fed, watered, and without a skerick of personal identification.

Why do they leave home with travel documents and personal identification and then dispose of them for the boat trip…why would one do that?

Why do the illegals travel through other nations that could afford them sanctuary?

How, If they are destitute, do they manage to afford the $20,000 fee to their smuggler mates?

Mikk you don't defend a moral stance; you and others here defend a position driven by personal ego or a blind regurgitation of a political line. Argue about the semantics of "normal immigrant" and asylum seeker all you like, but there is no substance to your stance unless you have taken Gillard’s offer of helping out and housing some of these desperadoes’ in your own homes, Gillard will give you a stipend for it. Have any of you?

Australia takes the highest number of UN designated refugees per capita of all the other nations. Why should these cheats and liars take the place of the poor buggers sitting in camps who are genuinely in need of a new home because theirs has gone, rather than just seeking a better life style?

We can’t take care of our first Australians. Why don’t you decry the lifestyle and absolute bottom of the bird cage social position of our indigenous mates who die twenty years earlier than we Caucasians?

Who amongst the acolytes of social engineering here at OLO has taken Gillard’s offer and actually housed an illegal …or two. …hands up.

Lexi,
It is good to se you have looked at the DIAC website,it is interesting.

Now you are trying to spin it by misquoting what they state.

If you think that Asylum seekers have legal rights of entry then put up the link. You are good at putting up links as you have done it many times on other things.

so come on Lexi put up the link that shows where the DIAC states that asylum seekers have legal rights of entry. You won't put up a link simply because you cannot find one, it does not exist.

Any person who enters Aus without a valid visa is unlawfull i.e. illegal i.e. breaking our law.

Here is the link again. http://www.immi.gov.au/managing-australias-borders/detention/about/background.htm

"Fleeing fiscal persecution Mikk? They arrive here unwounded, well fed, watered, and without a skerick of personal identification."

Then why does the dept of immigration keep assesing them as legitimate refugees? (eventually)

"Any person who enters Aus without a valid visa is unlawfull i.e. illegal i.e. breaking our law." Unless it is for the purposes of seeking asylum. Why is it so hard for you to accept that asylum seekers are given this exception?

Banjo the link you put up proves your argument that asylum seekers are "illegal" is BS. Unlawful is not the same as illegal. No where does it say they will be arrested, charged or placed before a court as they would be if they had commited a criminal act.

Mikk,

You said "Unlawful is not the same as illegal." Actually it is!

Synonyms of illegal from a dictionary.

banned,
prohibited
bootleg, black,
black-market,
contraband,
criminal,
felonious
ill-gotten
embezzled, misappropriated
extrajudicial
extralegal, nonlegal
illegitimate,
illicit,
outlawed,

UNLAWFUL

ineligible
penal,
punishable
under-the-counter

So technically the term illegal immigrant applies, unless Mikk and others get the definition of the word changed.

Actually the term does not apply to asylum seekers or
refugees because asylum seekers do not break any
Australian law simply by arriving on boats without
authorisation. Australian and international law make
these allowances because it is not always safe or
practicable for asylum seekers to obtain travel
documents or travel through authorised channels.

Under Article 14 of the 1948 Universal declaration of
Human Rights everyone has the right to seek asylum.
The Migration Act 1958 allows for those seeking asylum
to enter Australia with or without visas. The same
situation is covered by the UN REfugee Convention
(to which Australia is a signatory).

There is no offence under Australian law that
criminalises the act of arriving in Australia or the
seeking of asylum without a valid visa.

However if you still don't believe what the Deptartment
of Immigration states in its own fact sheets their offices
are open Monday to Friday 8.30am to 4.30pm. Their
telephone number is - 131 881. Give them a ring and
ask them yourself if asylum seekers are "illegals".

Cheers.

Actually Lexi,

I have spoken, a year or so ago, to someone who has been in immigration for a while, and his words were that they "preferred not to use the phrase "illegal immigrant" because of the negative connotations, even though it was technically correct.