International students find new ways to scam visa system
Figures from the Department of Home Affairs revealed that 3,555 Chinese students applied for asylum in the five years to June, compared to 1,788 Malaysian students and 1,112 Indian students.
The release of the figures comes at a time when visa holders claiming protection are increasing following a Labor crackdown on international education.
Immigration influencer Abul Rizvi told The SMH that he expects student asylum claims to rise in response to Labor’s changes.
“What [the visa crackdown] does is narrow their options, so if they want to stay in Australia and don’t have any particular skills, they’re really only left with applying for asylum or going home”, he said.
Andrew Norton from ANU echoed Rizvi’s sentiment.
“I would not be in the least bit surprised if these numbers did go up”, he said.
Rizvi also noted that there were a record 114,000 people in Australia awaiting protection decisions or who were yet to be removed after their applications were rejected.
Coalition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan also that asylum claims had rocketed under the Albanese government.
“The grave concern is that this weakness to act will see more and more people seeking asylum here in Australia and the latest proof point is that last month we saw record monthly numbers for the two years of the Albanese government”, he said.
The below chart shows that there were 286,300 bridging visas on issue as at March 2024, up 92,300 year-on-year:
The surge in asylum claims is being facilitated by dodgy migration agents, as illustrated in the video below:
Australian Government: “We’re cutting the number of foreign students.”
Migration agents: “LOL, LMAO” pic.twitter.com/ygNNFecMiz
— Dr. J Walter Sparkey 💉💉💉💉 (@ockerincel77) June 10, 2024
To add insult to injury, migration agents are included on the skilled occupation list, whereas many trades have been excluded:
In May, the federal parliament passed legislation to establish the Administrative Review Tribunal, which will take over as the primary reviewer of government decisions from the ailing Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT).
The AAT has been chastised for its slow handling of the visa appeals process.
Hopefully, the new Administrative Review Tribunal will do a better job of rejecting spurious immigration claims.
