Illegal Aliens Drawn to ‘Lucky’ Australia

Thousands of people sneak into Australia every year, lured by its image as the “lucky country” where space and wealth are easy to find.

Illegal immigrants, given scant attention in the past when they were relatively few in number, are receiving increasing scrutiny as a result of an emotional public debate over the influx of Asians into Australia’s predominantly white society.

Although most illegals are Europeans who have overstayed tourist visas, concern over immigration generally has focused attention on Asians and South Pacific islanders.

Almost half the visitors from mainland China, tiny Tonga and Fiji drop out of sight when their visas expire.

Most illegal immigrants find it easy to get regular jobs because of the relaxed local approach to rules and regulations, but many find it equally easy to key into Australia’s social services.

The government is now facing a bill of up to $380 million in social service costs every year from illegal immigrants who use health services and draw unemployment benefits without paying taxes.

The total number of illegal immigrants is not certain but government and social service agencies estimate it at between 80,000 and 100,000--among 17 million people scattered around a land the size of the continental United States.

About 750,000 visitors arrive legally every year, mostly tourists and business people. Immigration service figures show that most illegal immigrants are simply people who have overstayed their visas by as little as one day.

Only a handful actually enter the country illegally to join the estimated 15,000 people who overstay or breach their visas. About 4,000 of these are tracked down and deported, officials said.

Drug-runners and fishermen exploit the vastness of Australia’s desolate northern coastline to drop the more gullible would-be new Australians into one of the least welcoming environments in the world. Few escape attention long enough to slip from the Outback into the cities.

Government amnesties for some 15,000 illegal immigrants in 1976 and 1980 have encouraged hopes of further truces.

“But after the amnesties, more illegal immigrants entered Australia hoping for further amnesties. There will never be an amnesty again and we regularly spread the message through our foreign missions,” a senior immigration official said.

The fact that the majority of illegal immigrants are from Britain has done little to dispel popular concern that Australia is facing a major problem with Asian immigration.

Australia accepts about 140,000 immigrants every year, and about 40% of the population are immigrants, or their descendants, from 140 countries.

Up to 1945 some 90% of Australians were of British or Irish origin. Only about 20% of the 115,000 immigrants who arrived during 1986 and 1987 came from Britain and Ireland. The biggest group, 32%, was from Asia, according to latest official statistics.

The trend has given rise to anti-Asian sentiment here, almost 16 years after a “White Australia” policy favoring English-speaking Anglo-Saxons was officially buried.

Race Discrimination Commissioner Irene Moss said the illegal immigrants make her job more difficult because of the general fear that they are mostly Asians.

A dozen members of a racist group, linked to the extreme right-wing Australian Nationalist Movement, were recently charged with more than 100 offenses ranging from the fire-bombing of Chinese restaurants and assault to housebreaking. Their cases are pending.

The government has no power to deal with racist groups until they commit a physical act of discrimination. Distribution of racist leaflets and other material is not illegal.