Over 200 Brits have applied for asylum in Australia - but authorities tell them to stop

Over 200 Brits have applied for asylum in Australia - but authorities tell them to stop Brits trying back door route to stay in Australia by applying for asylum have been told they were getting 'seriously bad advice' Over 230 British citizens have applied for asylum in … Australia! The latest figures from Down Under showed that cheeky Brits were using this route to try and extend their stay in the sunshine. Now the Aussie authorities have issued a formal warning that the UK applications must stop - because they would be rejected. So many have now been made they are included in official figures but still lag far behind countries like India and China. The government said that they had noticed UK and Irish temporary visa holders being advised on social media to apply for protection visas to extend their stay. The Department of Home Affairs called this is “seriously bad advice.” Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke is finalising a plan for deterring “non-meritorious asylum claims”. Burke wanted to boost compliance by sending out more immigration officers to track down and deport overstayers exploiting the system. The plans concerned some ministers who wanted to make sure it was not seen by migrant communities as an ICE-style, Donald Trump-like move, or weaponised by the Greens in a similar light. Labour minister Chris Bowen said: “Australia needs an Australian immigration policy, not one from Donald Trump. Look at some of the countries on that list. Some of the countries on that list have provided Australia with wonderful migrants. Tony Burke is reviewing the entire migration programme, every stream of it, temporary and permanent, and he’ll have more to say.” Burke’s prospective crackdown is being fiercely resisted by the Refugee Council of Australia, which has warned that stripping work rights and due process from genuine refugees would jeopardise the country’s humanitarian program. A spokesman said: “The answer to backlogs is better decision-making, not fewer rights. People seeking asylum must be able to work legally and support themselves while their claims are determined. “Removing that right will instead increase the risk of poverty, homelessness and reliance on charities that are already under significant pressure.” But the 198 applications that were reported from UK citizens in 2025-26 were a sign that the system remains susceptible to non-meritorious claims, given recent data suggests no UK citizens have been successful in their applications. An additional 32 people from the UK applied for asylum in July. The increase in UK claims from September, October and November 2025, and March and April 2026, marked the first time that British applicants made enough applications to be publicly reported in department data. There were also 105 protection visa refusals being contested by UK citizens in the Administrative Review Tribunal at the end of June, of which 87 had been launched in the last 12 months.