Chinese tourists and international students help drive asylum claims up 311 per cent

Source: ABC Net, 17/12/2018

Key points:
• People claiming to be Christian, LGBTI and love children
are among those seeking asylum
• All arrived by plane using temporary visas, mainly for
study and tourism
• Experts warn bogus asylum claims are a way to overstay
visas
Onshore protection visa applications from those who arrived by
plane from the People`s Republic of China jumped from 2,269 in
2016-17 to 9,315 in 2017-18, the data reveals.
Despite the surge in claims, Chinese nationals had one of the
lowest success rates for protection visas, with the Department
only recognising 10 per cent of those claims as being genuine.
The total number of onshore asylum claims for all nationalities
soared 225 per cent from 8,587 in 2014-15 to 27,931 in 2017-18
with Chinese nationals making up a third of all claims over that
period.
Refugee Council of Australia director of policy Joyce Chia told
the ABC the number of student visas had increased with the booming
international student industry in Australia, now worth an
estimated $32 billion.
`I think the fact that Chinese people have increasing access [to
Australia] is a large factor,` she said.
`We are seeing a massive increase in people coming by plane
generally, and obviously with the massive increase in
international students from places like China, it`s now much
easier for those students to get to Australia.`
`Not an evil cult sect and neither am I a pagan`
Transcripts from hearings at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal
(AAT), which has the power to overturn decisions made by the
Department of Home Affairs, reveal a range of reasons applicants
claim to be refugees, including being: a love child, Christian, a
cult member or LGBT.
One young woman from China told the tribunal that as a child born
outside marriage in violation of China`s strict family planning
laws, commonly known as `black children`, she would have no access
to healthcare or education and her parents were required to pay a
compensation fee for breaking the rules.
All were rejected by the tribunal.
`I think [it is impossible for] my mother … to take us to China,
as the children of a single mother, we could not be registered
into the household in China, we will become the black children,`
she told the tribunal in a statement.
`As a result, we are not able to attend the school. We cannot get
the social welfare. My mother does not want us to live in the
unfair environment.`
Another woman from Fujian province who came to Australia on a
student visa said she feared to return to China because her
parents had become members of the banned Eastern Lightning Church
that became infamous after some of its members beat a woman to
death at a McDonald`s in China in 2014.
`The Church of Almighty God is not an evil cult sect, and neither
am I a pagan,` she said.
Many claimants are arriving on temporary migrant visas such as
international student visas, of which there are 652,000 currently
studying in Australia â€` including almost 200,000 are from China,
according to the federal Department of Education.
Bridging visas surge 330 per cent in a year
Associate professor of law at Murdoch University Mary Anne Kenny
said an obvious reason for the spike in questionable protection
claims was the bridging visas you could obtain while awaiting a
decision.
`Once you are in the country, either as a tourist or a student, if
you then apply for a protection visa, you are eligible for a
bridging visa,` she told the ABC.
`Depending on the type, [it] may give you the right to work and
can take some time [to process] depending on how long it takes the
department to process the application.
`It doesn`t cost very much to make an application and you can then
extend your period of stay here, because you will be on the
bridging visa while your application is [being] determined.`
In August 2018, there were 176,000 people on bridging visas in
Australia â€` a massive jump from 40,000 at the same time last year.

Satellite imagery lifts the lid on the size and spread of China`s
internment camps, used to indoctrinate vast numbers of the
Xinjiang region`s Muslim population.
Ms Chia said that while the Department of Home Affairs continued
to receive genuine refugees such as Falun Gong members and
persecuted minorities such as Uyghurs from Xinjiang province,
those cases were comparatively rare.
`In general China is not a refugee producing country, however
there are certain groups that would have valid asylum claims
because of the repressive government,` she said.
`Some of them may qualify under the refugee convention, but to be
honest many of them on student visas [are not].`
There has also been a surge in the number of asylum seekers
appealing protection visa rejections to the Administrative Appeals
Tribunal (AAT).
The Tribunal`s 2017-18 report said the number of appeals from
Chinese nationals had increased by 135 per cent since the last
financial year, now making up 25 per cent of all protection visa
appeals.
It added that only 5 per cent of all appeals were successful.
ot show up to hearings raises further concerns that the process is
being abused by fraudulent claims in a bid by some visa holders to
extend their stay.
The Department of Home Affairs does not publish processing times
for protection visa claims.
The average time the AAT took to decide migration cases was about
a year, allowing students who had a visa cancelled or expired to
extend their stay by appealing.
If unsuccessful they could then apply for a protection visa, which
took an average time of about eight months to be decided.
`Fraudulent migration agents promising the world`
Ms Chia said cases of migration agents fraudulently lodging asylum
claims for protection visas on their client`s behalf was also an
issue.
`We also have certainly heard of fraudulent migration agents
promising the world to people in relation to protection visas,`
she said.
`This is also what the department has indicated to us in relation
to Malaysian claims, as well that there are certain agents who are
promoting it as a way to stay in Australia often unregistered or
beyond the regulatory regime.`
Associate professor Anne Kenny said it was possible the number of
false claims was rising because word was spreading among temporary
visa arrivals of the success of others in lengthening their stay.
`There may well be fraudulent behaviour with people making false
claims because they may very well know that this has been
successful for other people in extending the time of their stay
even though they are not genuine refugees.`
A spokesman from the Department of Home Affairs told the ABC in a
statement that `Australia takes its international obligations
seriously and provides protection consistent with these
obligations, as set out in the Migration Act 1958`.
`An assessment of whether an asylum seeker engages Australia`s
protection obligations is based on the individual merits of each
case.`