Boat arrivals whose claims were frozen by Labor threatened with deportation if they don’t apply by 1 October

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Asylum seekers in Australia who are part of the “legacy caseload”, have been given until 1 October to formally apply for protection or face deportation, the immigration minister, Peter Dutton, has announced.

“The Turnbull government has today set a deadline … the October cut-off for lodgement of protection claims will ensure that Australian taxpayers are not providing financial support to people who have no right to be in Australia,” Dutton said.

The legacy caseload is about 30,500 asylum seekers who arrived in Australia by sea between August 2012 and January 2014. Their claims for protection were frozen under Labor’s “no advantage” rule.

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The majority – 23,000 – of the 30,500 people in the legacy caseload have applied for protection. About 7,500 have not yet formally applied, most because they have not been formally invited or are on a waiting list for legal assistance.

Most were not allowed to apply for protection until December last year and many remain in the uncertain limbo of living in Australia on bridging visas while they are waiting for their claims for protection to be processed by the immigration department.

Senior department of immigration sources have previously told the Guardian there is recognition within the department that it cannot process the volume of applications it has demanded of asylum seekers but that there is political pressure to be seen to clearing the legacy caseload

Speaking in Brisbane on Sunday, Dutton said Australia was a generous refugee resettlement country but could not afford to be “taken for a ride by people who refuse to provide details about their protection claims”.

“We are not going to allow, given the level of debt that our country is in, for more debt to be run up paying for welfare services, for people who are not genuine.”



Dutton said the 1 October deadline was non-negotiable and any asylum seeker who had not lodged an application by then would be deemed to have forfeited their claim to protection.

“They will be subject to removal from Australia, prohibited from applying for any Australian visa, cut from government income support and banned from re-entering Australia.

“The expectation is, if people can’t make their claim for protection, then they need to depart our country as quickly as possible,” he said.



The chief executive of Melbourne’s Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, Kon Karapanagiotidis, said the government deadline would face legal challenge if people were cut off, or denied the chance to apply for protection.

“The ASRC will fight in the courts any attempt to take away the right of people to seek asylum in Australia that came by sea. It’s illegal.”

Karapanagiotidis said the government had spent billions denying people seeking asylum their human rights, and was now scapegoating them for its own failures to provide protection.

Human Rights Director with GetUp, Shen Narayanasamy, said under the government’s new timeline, people who have been living and working in Australia for years could be torn from their communities within weeks, and their chance of a fair process destroyed.

“Peter Dutton has sunk to a new low. People who are living and working in our communities with their children attending schools, are now caught up in a bureaucratic nightmare that could cost them their homes and safety.”

Narayanasamy said many had been waiting patiently for years to be properly assessed as refugees, and to be granted protection in Australia.

“Asylum claims are extremely complex, and involve hours of poring over legal documents and paperwork. Legal services are pushed to the limit forcing hundreds to forgo legal advice and interpreters, making their claims impossibly difficult to complete.”

The Edmund Rice Centre described Dutton’s comments as “another unfair and extreme attack” on refugees and asylum seekers.

“Peter Dutton and the Turnbull government are deliberately making the process of applying for protection as difficult as possible,” the centre’s coordinator of campaigns, Dominic Ofner said.



“There are over 21 million refugees worldwide and the international community is facing the biggest humanitarian crisis since world war two. In this context, it is simply beyond embarrassing that our government is doing everything it possibly can to deny basic rights to 7,500 people seeking asylum in Australia.”



Most of the legacy caseload group – 23,000 – have applied for protection, but the “fast-track” process, riven by controversy, legal challenges and department under-resourcing, can take years to finalise.

About 9,500 have had their claims assessed, of which 6,500 have been formally recognised as refugees, that is, they have a well-founded fear of persecution in their homeland, cannot be returned there, and are legally owed protection by Australia.

About 3,000 have had their claims for protection rejected. Some of those remain in the appeals process.

A further 13,500 have applied and are having their claims assessed, while 7,500 have not yet presented their case for protection.

Earlier this year, the government began sending letters to asylum seekers warning them to submit their application for protection – a 60-page document in English, that takes about eight to 10 hours to complete with legal help – within 60 days or face being cut off from all assistance.

Thousands of lawyers, paralegals and interpreters across Australia responded to the new deadlines, volunteering their time and expertise to help people at risk of being left destitute or deported.



Those who failed to meet the deadline risk losing any welfare payments, the right to work or to healthcare, or even the right to ever apply for asylum.

The wait for legal assistance in applying is up to a year at many asylum seeker assistance organisations.

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The fast-track process strips key review rights from asylum seekers and expands ministerial powers to prevent initial decisions being challenged.



Under fast-track, asylum applicants get “one shot”, lawyers say, at presenting their protection claim. They cannot introduce new evidence as their case progresses, even if there are new occurrences of continued persecution in their homeland.



Before fast-track was introduced, 90% of asylum applicants were found to have valid protection claims. Under the new system, that number has fallen to about 70%.

The system has been promoted by the government as a mechanism to streamline the asylum protection system and deter its abuse, but critics have said it sets people up to fail.