buddies

Offshore refugees are people who apply to enter Australia from overseas and who have usually been identified by the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) as people requiring permanent resettlement in a safe country.
Onshore refugees are the ones who make it to Australia – either by plane or by boat - and then apply to stay here permanently. They are supposedly the “queue-jumpers.”

In Afghanistan and Iraq, there is no Australian diplomatic representation and therefore, nowhere to queue.

Supreme Court Judge Marcus Einfeld says: “People seeking refugee asylum are not illegal migrants. In making their applications for refugee status, they are doing something expressly permitted by Australian and international law.”

An estimated 50,000 people are currently living in Australia who have overstayed their visas. The majority come form the United Kingdom and United States.

At the end of the Vietnam War, Australia opened its doors to more that 200,000 boat people, many without papers. They were housed in open hostels.

(source: David Leser’s article Behind the Wire, in the July, 2002 issue of Women’s Weekly)