ASYLUM claims by people who fly to Australia have doubled in the past five years, figures show.

About 9000 applications were lodged by air arrivals in the past 18 months - more than triple the number of refugee claims made by boat people.

China was the biggest source of applicants, followed by Fiji, Pakistan and Iran, according to an Immigration Department report.

Monash University associate researcher Adrienne Millbank said it was virtually impossible for genuine asylum seekers to come by plane because of strict vetting of visa applicants by immigration authorities.

Ms Millbank said most people who arrived by air and then made refugee claims were manipulating the system to extend their stay in Australia.

"You can certainly say that these people are untruthful because they have to declare when they get a visa that they're not intending to apply for asylum," she said.

"They are no more deserving than the people who pay for people smugglers because in one case they are manipulating the system and in the other case they are trying to break in illegally."

About 6000 air arrivals lodged claims last year, compared with 3190 in 2005-06, said the report Asylum Statistics Australia 2010-11.

More than 90 per cent of Iranians, Afghanis and Iraqis were successful in 2009-10, while Chinese had a 42 per cent success rate, Lebanese (33.7 per cent), Fijians (16 per cent) and Indians (12.9 per cent).

Asylum Seeker Resource Centre spokesman Pamela Curr said the department did not publish figures on the number of people turned around at Australian airports before they had a chance to make refugee claims.

Ms Curr said some people on visitor and student visas made asylum claims in a bid to prolong their stay in Australia, but many air arrivals had genuine reasons for seeking refugee status.

"With the recent trouble in North Africa and the Arab world, we are seeing applicants from countries like Syria, Egypt and Bahrain," she said.



"We are also seeing more Iranians because of the unrest in Iran two years ago."

The report said there were 2172 asylum claims lodged by boat people last year, compared with 228 in 2008-09 and 21 in 2007-08.

In the first six months of 2010-11, the biggest number of refugee claims came from Afghanistan (1118). Then followed Iran (809), stateless persons (655), Iraq (405) and Sri Lanka (251).

Meanwhile, the Government yesterday introduced to Parliament its proposed changes to the Migration Act, which would allow it to resurrect the Malaysian people swap deal.

Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said the law changes were in the "national interest", while Prime Minister Julia Gillard attacked the Coalition for signalling it would vote them down.

The Government last night revealed that the full debate on the laws would begin in parliament today.

masanauskasj@heraldsun.com.au

Originally published as Make way for jetset asylum seekers