Few deported as figures record huge jump in refugee applications

Would-be asylum seekers whose claims of persecution have been found to be illegitimate face little risk of being deported, new figures have shown.

Would-be asylum seekers whose claims of persecution have been found to be illegitimate face little risk of being deported, it can be revealed, as Australia saw another surge in application for refugee status in May.

According to figures just released by the Department of Home Affairs, 1896 people resident in Australia applied for onshore protection visas to allow them to stay in the country, the highest number since February, 2020.

At the same time, just 26 cases dealt with in May were found to be genuinely in need of protection, and only seven failed asylum seekers were deported that same month.

Of the nearly 2000 applications for asylum received in May, the largest number came from Indian passport holders (262 claims), followed by China (182), Pakistan and Vietnam (114 each), and Malaysia (95).

The figures also revealed that along with the 26 cases of people granted protection, officials processed a further 1065 cases that were determined to not be in need of asylum.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (left) and Opposition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan.

Despite the large number of claims, citizens of India have one of the lowest rates of successful asylum claims, with less than 2 per cent found to be worthy of refugee status.

Of the 149 Chinese asylum claims dealt with in May, none were found to be in need of protection. The figures mean that the total number of would-be asylum seekers in the country waiting to be dealt with is now over 102,000.

While Labor has long claimed that the high numbers are a result of a backlog left by previous Coalition governments, the large number of asylum seeker claimants comes against a background of one of the biggest population booms in the country’s history.

At the same time, refugee advocates have raised concerns that wait times of as many as eight years to see asylum claims processed are leading some to try to game the system.

In January, the Refugee Council of Australia made a submission to the government warning that backlogs “have created a circumstance where it is possible … to lodge asylum applications even when they may not have meritorious claims for protection as they can stay in Australia while their application slowly passes through the system.”

“Labor’s big Australia policy appears to extend to onshore asylum seekers,” Opposition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan said.

“Labor has no plan to deal with the 1.5 million legal arrivals over five years and they have no plan to deal with the growing population of failed asylum seekers.

“When Labor was in opposition they made a lot of noise about asylum seekers arriving by plane, but in government the problem is getting worse and Labor is doing nothing to fix it.”