We came to Australia the official way - playing it totally by the book. Not everyone does though. Funnily enough, the biggest single nationality of illegal workers in Australia is British. Most of them come here on holiday and find the thought of returning to the grey skies of Britain makes them miserable.

So they stay in Australia.

Often they do casual work. There’s a shortage of casual workers and fruit pickers etc here so it’s fair to say that many people turn a blind eye. Not the authorities though. If you’re found out, you are deported and most likely banned from coming back to Australia for a few years.

The typical overstayer is a man aged 31 to 50 or a woman over 60.

According to the Dept. of Immigration, more than 40,000 overstayers came to Australia on visitor visas and most had stayed up to a year longer than they should have. In the last 12 months more than 18,000 overstayers and illegal workers have been deported.