They are all refugees who came to Australia to escape persecution and fear, to be able to live and grow and flourish.

They are just some of the wonderful people who have made a new life in our multicultural society and while Australia gave them the opportunity to succeed, they in turn have repaid the nation back in abundance. November 16 is the UN International Day of Tolerance.

It saddens me greatly to see refugees labelled as faceless "asylum seekers", somehow a menace to our society.

What makes us so intolerant of people we don't know? How would react if our children were under threat of death, starvation or harm.

Where our life's existence consists of constant fear and uncertainty the basic rights as a human being stripped away.

The truth, unless you are an Australian of Aboriginal descent, we are all either migrants or are descended from migrants strangers to a new land.

"Australian" is not defined by skin colour, the languages spoken, gender, religion or education.

We are a created nation of many people who have been arriving to join the traditional owners for the last 225 years. The first "boat people" were actually the First Fleet occupants who landed in 1788.

Sure there is a great evil in trafficking people illegally, but that is the organisers, not the refugees.

The right to seek asylum is Article 14 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (www.humanrights.com). Refusing that right is a fundamental breach of human rights. How many potential, future great Australians are detained in detention centres here and overseas for attempting to exercise that right and flee danger in the lands they have come from?

Let's mark Tolerance Day by welcoming refugees to the "Lucky Country" with tolerance and good will. Give them a fair go. Let's punish the traffickers, the real criminals and not their victims.

Nigel Mannock

Youth for Human Rights Australia

Dundas