For Years Labor’s immigration spokesperson, Kristina Keneally, has blasted the blatant rorting of Australia’s immigration system under the Coalition, which has seen huge numbers of people make bogus claims for asylum so they can work and live in Australia.
Just as COVID hit in February 2020, Keneally argued that around “100,000 people” had claimed “asylum after arriving in Australia on an airplane”. These people, according to Keneally, are typically brought in by “criminal people smuggling syndicates… running a work scam” from Malaysia and China, and “use online tourist visa systems” to arrive in Australia by plane. Then the smugglers “instruct them to apply for asylum, knowing the worker will be put on a bridging visa for at least three years before their application is determined”, after which “the smugglers send the workers out to dodgy labour hire companies”. This process was “booming because there are dodgy labour hire companies and unscrupulous employers who see exploitation as a cost-cutting tool”.
On Friday, Keneally revisited the issue, accusing the Coalition government of overseeing a scam involving bridging visas being given to undocumented workers. This follows a media investigation revealing that Home Affairs has issued thousands of bridging visas to help address labour shortages in the agricultural sector over the pandemic, which Keneally claims will lead to further exploitation of vulnerable people by dodgy labour hire companies:
An investigation by The Australian revealed the Department of Home Affairs has quietly been handing out thousands of visas in a bid to ease labour shortages facing the horticulture sector.
Figures provided by the Australian Border Force show in 2020 and 2021 combined, the Department of Home Affairs granted 97,831 Bridging E visas…
“Over the past nine years the Morrison government has overseen an explosion in the number of people arriving by aeroplane and claiming asylum, with a record 140,000 people being smuggled and trafficked into Australia through our airports,” Senator Keneally said.
“Even with the closed border, we have seen almost 1000 people per month claiming asylum onshore and accessing a work scam established by Mr Morrison’s failure to manage our border and immigration system.
“The latest statistics show that legacy of Mr Morrison’s border failures, with dodgy labour hire companies continuing to traffic and exploit vulnerable people.”
Dozens of illegal workers – predominantly of Chinese and Malaysian background – have claimed they received bridging visas in the past year.
The next chart plots the explosion of bridging visas over the past decade; albeit many are genuine:
Even before the pandemic began, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) was suffering a gigantic case backlog on the back of the boom in bogus asylum seeker claims:
Each migration case at the AAT reportedly costs taxpayers between $2137 and $3036 to review. Thus, the blowout in bogus asylum seeker claims costs Australians a fortune.
As admitted by former high court justice, Ian Callinan, the rorting of Australia’s visa system is well known within the immigration industry:
[Ian Callinan] said “almost everyone” with migration law experience had told him there were applicants and representatives who “game the system, well knowing there is an automatic entitlement to a bridging visa”…
So basically, those seeking to rort the system for personal gain can simply contact the immigration industry to set in motion the never ending AAT process. This then allows “temporary” visitors to extend their stays for years, allowing them to work and possibly transition to permanent residency.
In truth, the rorting of Australia’s visa system runs far and wide and includes:
- Plane arrivals making bogus applications for asylum;
- International students undertaking bogus tertiary courses to obtain work rights and permanent residency;
- Documented and undocumented migrant workers being paid well below market rates, facilitated via criminal syndicates and labour hire companies; and
- Employers hiring ‘skilled’ temporary migrant workers at below market rates around the minimum salary threshold of $53,900
The entire Australian immigration system has been badly corrupted and requires fundamental reform. But it won’t because the business, property, and edu-migration industries all profit from the corruption and pull our policy-makers’ strings.
Immigration abuse is now a bonafide feature of the Australian economy, not a bug.
