Asylum seeker backlog from Labor’s boats policy won’t be cleared until 2019
EXCLUSIVE: While the last of the children in detention were released at the weekend, 26,500 asylum seekers are still living on bridging visas in the community waiting to be processed.
NSW
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THE backlog of asylum seeker cases from Labor’s disastrous boats policy will not be cleared until at least 2019, the government has confirmed.
While the last of the children in detention were released at the weekend, the Daily Telegraph can reveal that 26,500 asylum seekers are still living on bridging visas in the community waiting to be processed.
The scale of Labor’s failed border protection policy under the Rudd-Gillard government — which saw 50,000 asylum seekers arrive by boat — has meant many will be still waiting years to be assessed for protection.
March 2016 figures from the Department of Immigration reveal that so far only 849 have been granted temporary protection visas.
Around 6000 applications for protection visas from arrivals before August 2012 had been made to the government. Less than half have been finalised. A further 3300 people had been assessed as being owed protection and were still awaiting security checks by ASIO.
Of the 24,500 who arrived after 13 August, 2012, however, only half are deemed able to apply for TPVs. A total of 3500 have been lodged — half of them this year.
The department said it was committed to meeting an end- of-2018 deadline to finalise the legacy case load. However, the government has warned it could take longer.
“Labor’s border protection failures, which resulted in 50,000 people arriving illegally by boat, left a legacy of 30,000 people whose claims for protection had not been progressed,” Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said.
“Labor opposed legislation to resolve the caseload, delaying the process.
“Labor’s border protection failures had significant human costs, caused massive budget blowouts and stretched the resources of the Department of Immigration.”
Last year The Daily Telegraph revealed that more stringent ASIO assessments of asylum seekers — following recommendations in the wake of the Sydney siege — would also delay the process. The Sunday Telegraph revealed yesterday that the last child detained on the mainland was finally released late on Friday night.
The children were released from a detention facility in Darwin where they were being housed while parents and other family members were being medically treated.
“It is great credit to our Immigration Minister Peter Dutton that there are now no children who’d arrived unlawfully by boat in detention,” Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said.
FACTS AND FIGURES:
50,000: The number of asylum seekers who arrived during the Rudd/Gillard governments
26,500: The number of asylum seekers still on bridging visas in the community
849: Asylum seekers granted temporary protection visas
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