Starburst, I believe Australia is a signatory to a convention that if someone declares themself an asylum seeker then yes we have to let them in. They then get checked for refugee status by the UNHCR and resettled if they are a genuine refugee (apparently 90% were found to be geneuine refugees here in Australia in the past, despite the anti-asylum seeker rhetoric of the Howard government) or deported back to whence they came. We need to either follow the convention we have signed in good faith, or we should rip it up. We can't have it both ways.
Why would they pay $10-15k per person to travel on a boat if they can fly on a plane for much less? Maybe you said it yourself... "the boat people do not have any form of identification". Or maybe they risk getting stopped by the hostile authorities they are fleeing from if they try to leave from an airport? Does someone have to have identification to be an asylum seeker? What you are saying does not make any sense.
