A surge in asylum claims from Chinese nationals arriving on tourist visas following a government change to the visa system is further proof of the “dire” state of Australia’s migration system, Labor’s shadow home affairs minister, Kristina Keneally, says.

In a speech to the Law Council of Australia’s immigration law conference on Friday, Keneally will release new figures showing that since the government allowed the online lodgement of tourist visas for Chinese nationals, there has been an almost 700% increase in the number of people arriving by air from China and claiming asylum.

In the 12 months after online lodgement was introduced, from March 2017 to February 2018, 7,304 Chinese nationals on tourist visas made claims for asylum compared to just 1,060 in the 12 months prior.

From February 2017 to September 2019, the total number of Chinese nationals to have claimed asylum is 13,462.

Keneally said the surge was contributing to the system being overloaded by often spurious claims, with about 90% of the 100,000 airplane arrivals who have claimed asylum in the past five years found to be unmeritorious.

“This is not an issue of a person’s nationality – it is about the integrity of our migration system – and an insight into how backlogs have grown so quickly,” according to a draft copy of Keneally’s speech.

“Claiming asylum is an important right that we need to uphold, and you play a vital role in supporting that right. But an overloaded system that discourages or delays genuine claims disadvantages all asylum claims.”

The apparent link between the online lodgement system and the surge in claims comes despite the government announcing $5m in the 2017-18 budget to “further strengthen the integrity” of the electronic authority system.

Keneally also warned that with an increased number of people on bridging visas, the backlog leads to a growing “honeypot” for people smugglers who facilitate travel to Australia for the specific purpose of having an extended stay in our country, often to access the labour market.

“As that continues, along with the wilful ignorance on the part of the government, the exploitation of these vulnerable people – a developing economic underclass – will only continue to grow.

“Plain and simple – this is a work scam.”

Since taking on the home affairs portfolio, Keneally has been targeting minister Peter Dutton over plane arrivals and the growing number of temporary migrants in Australia, saying their number has doubled since 2007 to 1 million people, or 4% of the population.

A large cohort of this is the more than 216,000 people on bridging visas in Australia, with the majority of those waiting for the department of home affairs to process their visa applications.

There are also more than 62,000 people who have overstayed their visa living in Australia, and the administrative appeals tribunal has 66,500 cases currently listed before the migration and refugee tribunal of the AAT.

She pointed to the “astonishing” fact that the processing time for partner visas had blown out to 31 months, leaving people in a state of “migration limbo”.

“Our permanent migration intake has been reduced by the current government whilst the number of temporary migrants in Australia continues to swell,” Keneally said.

“The health of Australia’s migration system is dire.”

Labor has established a Senate committee into temporary migration which is examining exploitation of temporary visa holders and the number of airplane arrivals claiming asylum, and how this is flowing through to the Australian economy more broadly.

Keneally said the government did not have a plan to stop the “slavery-like conditions” that were afflicting the temporary migrant workforce, and called for increased funding and “identity management improvements” to get on top of the issue.

“It’s incumbent on the Morrison government to try and stem these arrivals because a failure to do so will only add to the intractable caseload,” she said.