The Government’s asylum blind spot

Despite a dramatic change seeking asylum in Australia, Dr Abul Rizvi does not want to correct the systems he knows he has failed.
The accumulated works of asylum seekers in the administrative investigation court (ART) Has been exploded since 2016, now (due to additional financing for the AAT/Art allocated in 2023) was stabilized at approximately 43,000 and its composition has changed significantly.
As of 2016, asylum seekers who objected to rejection decisions exploded (see Graph 1).
This explosion was directed by a great labor smuggling fraud from Malaysia and China and to the Ministry of Interior (Dha) Rejection of art (see Graph 2).

In 2017-18, approximately 67% of the primary asylum practices were taken from Malaysia and Chinese citizens. In the beginning of 2022, when the international borders reopened, labor smuggling fraud did not continue. Primary asylum applications from Malaysia and Chinese citizens fell to approximately 14% in 2022-23 and probably fell slightly over 10% in 2023-24 (for some reason DHA did not publish all the data for 2023-24).
This enabled art to gradually reduce the accumulation of asylum cases of these two nations. Asylum applications in art from Malaysian citizens fell from approximately 15,000 in May 2025 to 6,000 in mid -2022. Those of Chinese citizens fell over 9,000 in September 2023 and increased to 8,000 in May 2025.
New primary and appeal asylum applications are strong, but not at pre -pandemic levels.
The asylum practices in art from the citizens of Thailand, Bangladesh and Pakistani remained relatively stable.

Great increases came from these:
- India rose from 658 to 5.711 in June 2020 in June 2020;
- Vietnam rises from 1,510 to 4.982 in June 2020;
- Indonesia rose from 436 to May 2025 to 2.805 in June 2020; And
- The Philippines rose from 317 to 2.144 in June 2021 in June 2021.
Four of these nations also have very low primary approval rates and very low setting rates in art
However, pacific citizens and especially Pacific Australian labor mobility are the asylum applications in art coming from countries that provide labor (Palm) The most dramatically growing schema (see graph 3).

Asylum seekers from these nations also have very low primary approval rates and a very low proportions in AAT/Art, and largely escape from exploiters in Australia and try to extend their stay by abuse the asylum system. It was really chosen as the chance of providing a permanent visa through a lottery -based Pacific Participation Visa (Chaotic) negligible.
They face them too Very high death and injury rates Due to accidents in Australia, both in the workplace and away from the workplace.
Both the palm visa and PEV need a serious redesign desperately. However, the government seems to have little tendency to maintain this.

DR ABUL Rizvi An independent Australian columnist And a former deputy secretary of the Ministry of Immigration. You can follow Abul on Twitter @Rizviabul.
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