Australia has seen boat people arriving into our waters since 1976, the first reported wave was in Darwin with the next five year thereafter bring 2059 asylum seekers to our shores. The types of people seeking asylum consist of people being displaced, tourists/ trained gorillas and drug smugglers.

From 1989 there were 300 per annum to 1999 mostly from countries such as Cambodia, Vietnam and Southern China. In 1999 Australian saw their first waves of boat people coming direct from the Middle East from countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Other.