10,000 Malaysians are in Australia illegally

PETALING JAYA: Nearly 10,000 Malaysians are in Australia illegally after overstaying their work and tourist visas. Malaysians form the largest group of unlawful non-citizens in Australia.
There are more than 64,000 people staying in Australia illegally. The Australian government estimated as many as 12,000 have been there for more than 20 years.
New figures from the Department of Immigration and Border Protection showed that temporary visitor visas were the mostly likely to be abused in Australia, The Canberra Times reported yesterday.
Among those who overstayed in 2016-17 were about 6,500 Chinese nationals and 5,170 from the United States. About 3700 UK nationals, 2,780 Indonesians and 2,730 Indians also overstayed.
"Given that almost 20,000 illegal overstayers have been in Australia for more than 15 years, it makes a mockery of the border protection focus on so called boat people and their lack of Australian placement," Senator Stirling Griff was quoted as saying.
"Most of these almost 65,000 would have travelled to Australia by air and the overwhelming majority have settled into Australian life, with little – if any – regard for our laws and responsibilities.
"The department stated that it was a fair estimate that 20,000 were also working illegally. That's at least 20,000 illegal overstayers taking Australian jobs."