The Albanese government is cracking down on bad actors using false asylum seeker claims to stay in the country, diverting resources away from genuine refugees, as it chips away at a huge application backlog.
Protracted visa processing times mean they could live and work in Australia for up to 11 years as the false claim goes through the immigration system.
In response, the Labor government will snuff out bogus protection claims by investing almost $160 million in three measures aimed at speeding up application processing.
The Administrative Appeals Tribunal, Federal Circuit, and Family Court of Australia will receive $57 million for more judges to decide claims, with another $48 million for legal services and $54 million for the Department of Home Affairs to process protection visa applications and clear its one million application-long backlog.
“We’re making sure that people with genuine claims get them assessed quickly so they can enjoy the benefits of refugee protection,” Immigration Minister Andrew Giles told Seven’s Sunrise program on Thursday.
“We’re taking away the incentive that has allowed the grotesque exploitation of too many people in Australia”.
Settlement Services International, which aids refugees and asylum seekers with the resettlement process in Australia, commended the quicker and fairer processing of asylum claims.
“As an organisation that supports tens of thousands of refugees to begin new lives in Australia each year, we welcome any change that will uphold the integrity of the asylum process and enable faster processing for people seeking safety from war and persecution,” the agency’s chief executive Violet Roumeliotis told AAP.
“People seeking asylum in Australia should have their applications for protection dealt with in a procedurally fair and timely manner.”
Ms Roumeliotis said any efforts to expedite the process will “reduce the negative impacts of prolonged uncertainty on the lives of people seeking asylum, their families and their communities.”
The announcement comes after a review of the immigration system by former Victorian Police commissioner Christine Nixon found criminals had exploited gaps and weaknesses to set up human trafficking and sexual slavery rackets and commit other crimes.
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil has made efforts to distinguish between real asylum seekers and those abusing the system.
“The people who suffer most from the problems in our protection visa system today are the people who have a genuine asylum claim,” she said.
“They are shoved in the queue with all of these other people who don’t have a genuine claim, and they’re made to wait.”
On Wednesday, she lambasted former immigration minister turned opposition leader Peter Dutton for overseeing a broken migration system under his watch.
By Farid Farid in Sydney
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