CHINESE national Chang Liqin, a resident of Australia for the past three years, and a tertiary-trained computer expert, works illegally as a cleaner. So, too, does former Bank of China employee Suo Yi whose financial plight has become more pressing since his wife became pregnant.
A friend and colleague William Lu is a little luckier. He is a machinist in a factory but his circumstances have resulted in a break-up with his girlfriend and the development of the uncertain demeanour of a person under extreme stress.
These are just three examples of the plight of 17,000 Chinese nationals who have sought refuge in Australia since the June 4 Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989.
At present they exist as refugees because the Australian Government is making a decision on their applications on a case-by-case basis. If they are rejected at the end of the process they will be repatriated to an uncertain future in China.
Their situation, they feel, is made the more unpalatable by the treatment fellow pro-democracy supporters have received in Canada and the United States.
Both these countries have granted protection to fleeing dissidents but Australia has chosen to set a date of entry prior to June 20, 1989 as the essential qualification for the granting of permanent Australian residency to the Chinese applicants.