Banjo, overstayers are a problem...look up border.com.au.
"What will happen if I stay in Australia after my visa has ended?
You become an 'unlawful non-citizen' and this can cause problems for you, such as:
you risk being detained and removed from Australia
you might have to pay the Australian Government for the cost of removing you from Australia
you could be banned from returning to Australia for up to three years – this is called a re-entry ban."

Certainly immigration has far more problems with the 'non-citizens' in this country than the few asylum seekers/refugees they accept. These people often work for cash, often on very low wages, undercutting many of our own Australian unemployed's chances of work.
Look it up for yourself...

Suseonline, "These people often work for cash, often on very low wages, undercutting many of our own Australian unemployed's chances of work"

The ripening berries growing on the Atherton Tableland need to be picked. There are only the backpackers and greying nomads to do it.

Meanwhile in Sydney and Melbourne those young men who arrived in boats after paying huge sums to criminal smugglers are dependent on the taxpayer.

Exactly how do you propose to lever their behinds out of Sydney where they are making trouble and into the fields with a basket picking fruit? One the other hand there are many young women doing the job and they have never needed protection.

Aussies, particularly young out of work ones don't want to work, and nor do they have to. They simply either shack up in numbers, 8 x $250/ week is more than most households bring in, or, they scam the easily scammed system like a couple living on the rock n roll one claiming single mother pension and the other the dole.

If they would pick fruit for $15 per hour then the illegals wouldn't have a job.

Hi Foxy, it is a sad indictment that Australia, a country that once prided itself on its ideals of freedom, continues to keep innocent children in detention, prison no less.

In November 2015 the Senate passed The Migration and Maritime Powers Amendment Bill (No. 1) with a number of Green amendments put forward by Senator Sarah Hanson-Young. The bill effectively would release all children in detention unless a court order was to prevent it as not being in the public interest. Unfortunate the government to its shame has as yet failed to ratify the bill in the House of Representatives. The only glimmer of hope for these children current locked away is for Malcolm Turnbull to act, and there is some possibility he will act on the issue shortly.

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/nov/23/senate-passes-bill-calling-for-release-of-all-children-in-immigration-detention

Hi Paul,

Isn't it fun to find a stick to shove up the government ?

It depends how you define 'detention': children on Nauru are free to go anywhere on Nauru, isn't that so ? They can go to school there, shop, go to the beach, fish, skim stones, play in the bush, etc., like kids elsewhere, isn't that so ?

Maybe I'm wrong but I don't think there are any kids on Manus island.

So how many children are in what is usually defined as 'detention' ? i.e. locked up in camps, or jails or some sort of institution ?

Just asking.

Joe

Hi Joe,

174 children are in closed immigration detention facilities: 104 are held in closed immigration detention facilities in Australia and 70 children are detained in the Regional Processing Centre in Nauru
331 children are in community detention in Australia.

Plese explain the government line on the 104 in the closed immigration detention facilities in Australia. How many of them go to the local school, shops, go to the beach, fish, skim stones, play in the bush, etc., like kids elsewhere, how many of the 104? None!