Immigration system crackdown to target dodgy international student visas and bogus asylum seekers

The Albanese government is cracking down on rorts in Australia’s immigration system, and dodgy international student visas and bogus asylum seekers will be the first targets.

Dodgy international student visas and bogus asylum seekers will be targeted by the Albanese government as it aims to end rorts in Australia’s immigration system.

The growing rental crisis has the government increasingly worried about the public’s attitude to immigration.

So this week a number of announcements will be unveiled by Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neill, Education Minister Jason Clare, Skills and Training Minister Brendan O’Connor and Immigration Minister Andrew Giles.

Government sources were keen to blame the problems in immigration on the previous Coalition government.

They pointed out that in the past financial year visa refusal rates for international students roughly doubled, with 94,000 applicants turned down, roughly half of them from the VET sector.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Max Mason-Hubers

The rise was largely driven by increased detection of fraudulent documentation from students seeking to enter Australia to work.

The government is concerned that since 2017 more than half the growth in international VET student enrolments have come from new colleges, and colleges with fewer than 100 students.

Former Victorian police commissioner Christine Nixon. Picture: David Geraghty

The crackdown, to be announced this week, is expected to focus on students coming to colleges the government suspects are bogus.

This week will also finally see the release of the review into the visa system by former Victorian police commissioner Christine Nixon which, according to copies leaked to the media, has found widespread cases of sexual exploitation, human trafficking and other organised crime activities.

Nixon has recommended temporary migrants should be barred from the sex industry.

Australians who employ temporary workers in the sex industry could also be disqualified from directing a company and their name published on a register.

Nixon has also recommended a crackdown on migration agents, including character tests.

Next week will also see an overhaul of the way applications for protection visas made on shore are handled.

Changes under consideration include tightening the restrictions on work rights for people making asylum claims, and a streamlining of the ­appeals process.

The number of people claiming asylum in Australia has been trending up since the borders were reopened post-pandemic — from 26,443 in 2021-2022 to 28,556 in 2022-2023.

The government is keen to avoid this number getting back to the almost 48,000 people who claimed asylum in 2018-2019.

The government is frustrated it is possible for people claiming asylum to stay for as long as 11 years on bridging visas, until their cases are finally dealt with, all the time with full work rights.

At present it takes an average of 866 days for Home Affairs to process an application, 1330 days for the AAT to review that and 1872 days for the courts to review it.

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