This clipping comes to us courtesy of Malaysian resident Ralph Blewitt!

The article refers to a question in the Malaysian parliament as to why Malaysians make up more than 50% of all protection visa applications that make their way to Australia's AAT.  From July last year to April 2019, 4,973 AAT applications were made by Malaysians to stay in Australia.

The Australian's picked up on the story this afternoon:

Malaysians rort Australian visa system

Some three quarters of the approximately 10,000 electronic visa holders who had overstayed their online Australian visas by the end of 2018 were from Malaysia.

Malaysian deputy foreign minister Marzuki Yahya said this week that Malaysians “cited various reasons in their applications, including family stress, racial and religious discrimination and domestic abuse” but, in reality, most were seeking better living conditions and higher wages.

“The world-class education system also attracts our citizens to migrate there and stay longer,” he told parliament in response to a question about why Malaysians were seeking protection in such large numbers.

Mr Marzuki said Malaysians had little to lose by applying for a five-year protection visa. It cost less than RM100 ($35) to apply and if their applications were ultimately refused they would be sent back to their home country on an “all-expense paid flight”.

In the 2016/2017 financial year alone 26,247 Malaysians lodged protection visa applications here.

Of those, only 168 were successful but the cost of processing such claims — some of which stretched up to eight years — was more than $46 million.

Australian border officials are now refusing entry at airport gateways to an average 20 Malaysians each week, many of whom are arriving on tourist visas with the intention of either immediately claiming asylum or doing so after earning money in seasonal farm work.

The report also found organised crime and illegitimate labour companies were using the online visa system to bring out illegal workers and that the practice represented an “organised scam that enables these criminal elements to exploit foreign workers in Australia until their claims are finalised”.