"To the previous unsigned contribution, an unsigned reply:  It is in general (and certainly in Australia) perfectly legal to enter a country without a visa and not through an official entry point if your reason for doing so is a legitimate claim to asylum.  The Howard-era criticism of ""boat people"", while rarely spelled out explicitly, was that a large fraction of their number were not legitimate asylum seekers but were, instead, economic migrants (Remember: Like it or not, living in poverty and in a country with repressive social norms does not make you a legitimate asylum seeker).  This, then, was the basis for the endless arguments over whether such people were entering the country illegally.  The truth, as an honest broker might expect, is that some of them were illegal and some of them were perfectly legal. 

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