More and more travellers overstaying visas

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Created on Friday, 12 October 2012 08:32

Written by Editorial staff

More and more travellers are overstaying their immigration visas,with 20,000 failing to leave Australia at the appropriate time in the last financial year.

The Australian reports that the immigration department is failing to deter people from following the instructions of their visa. Since 2007 when Labor came to power, the number of overstayers has risen from just under 10,000 to nearly 20,000 by the end of the last financial year, according to figures obtained by the News Limited publication. 

But a spokesperson for the Department of Immigration and Citizenship said that the government is doing its best to crack down on those who are illegally remaining in this country.

"Immigration compliance operations have actually led to about a 25 per cent increase in the number of visa overstayers and other unlawful non-citizens being detected and either removed from Australia or having their status regularised," the spokesman said.

More data released by The Australian shows that deporting someone costs between $4-5,000 $4,000 and $5,000, and if that is multiplied by the 19,540 people who were found to be here illegally in the last year, that equates to just over $78 million if the calculation is at a conservative cost of $4000 per deportation.

The day the Papua New Guinean offshore processing centre was opened, 175 more boats entered Australia illegally.

Shadow minister for immigration and citizenship Scott Morrison has pointed to the fact that plans for a processing centre on PNG has been in the pipeline for nearly 18 months and has cost more than $800 million.

"As with Nauru, Labor's decision to restore offshore processing on Manus Island has come far too late and is still far too little to deal with the unprecedented arrivals that have occurred as a result of the government's continued failed policies.

"Over 4,000 people have now arrived since Labor had to be dragged kicking and screaming into reopening Nauru and Manus Island,  as people smugglers continue to take advantage of the government's failure to adopt the full Howard government measures on our borders," he said.

Morrison says that less than five per cent of the arrivals since August's introduction of offshore processing have actually been placed in detention on Nauru or Manus Island. The half-hearted approach to border protection hasn't given its policy an edge to deter people smugglers and as a result, hasn't had the effect that it intended and is costing more and more of taxpayers money.