The number of people seeking asylum in Australia has hit a six-year high and a record 117,500 people are on shore awaiting a decision as huge backlogs and wait times expose the country’s immigration system to exploitation. Source: The Age.
The list of people in limbo is growing by about 1000 a month, creating a backdoor for people on temporary visas who run out of options, including students, to keep working in Australia by applying for asylum and entering the drawn-out appeal process.
It means those found to be genuine refugees are also forced to wait years for security.
The Labor Government has spent $275 million to step up resourcing and accelerate processes after a review found delays were “motivating bad actors to take advantage by lodging increasing numbers of non-genuine applications for protection”.
But it faces a tough task in wresting control of the system as latest Home Affairs data reveals 25,210 people applied for protection visas in the 2023-24 financial year, the highest number of applicants since 27,931 people in 2017-18.
More than four in five asylum claims were rejected, with applicants from Vietnam lodging the highest portion, followed by those from China and India.
Helen Duncan, chief executive of the Migration Institute of Australia, said it was “without doubt” that people who probably did not have legitimate claims were using protection visas to extend their stays in Australia.
“It’s not a situation we like to see because it means genuine refugees have their cases delayed because of huge backlogs and cases that have no merit,” she said.
The clogged system is one of the challenges facing the Albanese Government as it tries to address immigration under mounting political pressure ahead of the next election.
Home Affairs officials are speaking at several community-hosted events around the country this month to outline “what the Australian Government is doing to stop the exploitation of protection visas”.
FULL STORY
Asylum claims at six-year high as record numbers await decision
(By Natassia Chrysanthos, The Age)
