Australian border officials are refusing entry to an average of 20 Malaysians weekly in their bid to fight an orchestrated scam that would enable them to stay longer and work.
There is a surge in the number of Malaysians who enter Australia with an e-visitor visa, followed by them applying for a protection visa so that they can be in the country even longer.
Source: NST
The problem is, these visas are meant for asylum-seekers — people fleeing their country because their lives are threatened.
While authorities reject undeserving Malaysians vying for the protection visas, they would just submit an appeal against the decision which prolongs the deportation, providing them with an extension to their stay.
To prevent Malaysians from abusing this system, they are turned away at airports, before they can even cross immigration to apply for a visa.
Source: ABC News
And since July 2017, already almost 2,000 Malaysians have been denied entry to Australia. This number is about one-third of the total number of refusals even though Malaysians only make up one in every 20 visitors to Australia. However, this is deemed reasonable as 3/4 of the 10,000 people who have overstayed their visas since last year were Malaysians.
Still, refugee rights groups are concerned about the lack of transparency and argue that it’s unfortunate if genuine refugees who need asylum are deported.
To all Malaysians who are planning to visit Australia and work there: please go through the proper channel instead of abusing the system because this might lead to severe consequences for other Malaysians who want — and need — to go to the country down under.
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