Letters

摘要

The great-barrier griefYour special report on Australia (October 27th) noted that the number of boat-people arrivals is tiny relative to Australia's total migrant intake. This is thanks to the government's stringent immigration policy, which involves the offshore processing of potential asylum-seekers. Otherwise, the numbers would be much larger. In the 12 months to June 2013, when Australia had the type of less-restrictive system that you want, more than 25,000 asylum-seekers arrived by boat, accounting for 10% of net migration that year.