Australia, like Malta, continues to struggle with the increasing problem of illegal immigration. In the first six months of 2009, there has been a significant increase in the amount of illegal immigration; the numbers are larger than those of the entire 2008. About 1,600 illegal immigrants have arrived this year often on unseaworthy boats. The illegals have been intercepted by the Australian naval patrols and taken to Christmas Island, a territory of Australia located about 2,600 kilometres southwest of Western Australia.

The immigration laws under the previous John Howard's Liberal government had been deemed inhumane by the United Nations as they included harsh policies of confinement of asylum seekers.

When the Rudd Labour government came to power in 2007, they took a different approach to the boat people* and they sought to find a balance with a tough approach to border protection while removing some of the Liberal Party's Pacific Solution policy. The Pacific Solution was the name given to the Australian government's policy (2001-2007) of transporting asylum seekers to detention camps on small island nations in the Pacific Ocean rather than allowing them to land on the Australian mainland.

In the May 2009 budget, the new Rudd Labour government voted an extra $650 million in funding for border protection, a warning no doubt to the would-be refugees and people smugglers.

However, the Pacific Solution was quickly abandoned.

The Rudd Labour government is consistently being criticised for going soft on illegal migration and for taking a hands-off approach to an emotional situation that has the power to sway votes by the thousands.

No doubt, the issue of refugees threatens to politically erupt again same as it did prior to the 2002 election when Mr Howard swayed the election in his favour on the back of the m/v Tampa children overboard affair. The government, no doubt, fervently denies that their humane and relaxed laws are an invitation to illegal immigrants. They insist that most of the recent illegal immigrants are believed to be entering the country from distraught countries in the Middle East, seeking a better life. Asylum seekers from Afghanistan and Pakistan will often pay large sums of money to people-traffickers in Malaysia, the usual first stop for the Afghanis.

Australia is putting pressure on Malaysia to stop the trafficking. Australian officials are blaming their illegal immigration problem on Malaysia, explaining that if the Malaysian government enforced stricter penalties on people-smugglers, Australia's problems could be much lesser.

According to the United Nations' main refugee agency, there were 42 million forcibly displaced persons worldwide at the end of last year; just over 15 million were classified as refugees. It has been noted that the recent civil war in Sri Lanka resulted in some 250,000, most of them Tamils placed in refugee camps in the north of Sri Lanka.

Australia has started a huge advertising campaign of deterrence in Sri Lanka, emphasising that if you are thinking of coming to Australia illegally, do not bother, you will not get in.

The Rudd Labour government is well ahead in the popularity poll but they do not want a public backlash from the upswing of illegal immigrants.

They are not happy with being labelled as soft on border protection. The Australian government insists that the increase in boat people reflects global trends in displaced persons traffic. It is indeed a humane issue but it is as well politically dynamite.

*Boat people is a term that usually refers to illegal immigrants or asylum seekers who emigrate en masse in boats that are sometimes old and crudely made, rendering them unseaworthy and unsafe.

The term came into common use during the late 1970s with the mass departure of Vietnamese refugees from Communist-controlled Vietnam, following the Vietnam War.