Both One Nation and the Coalition have been talking up their mass deportation target of around 75,000 – with zero details of how that would be implemented or what it would cost. Abul Rizvi looks beyond the hype.

While One Nation and the Coalition often refer to ‘overstayers’, the bulk of people in Australia without a visa are in fact unsuccessful asylum seekers.

It is thus useful to understand how the current record number of unsuccessful asylum seekers came about; who the unsuccessful asylum seekers are likely to be; and what would be involved in a program to deport these people.

The surge in the number of unsuccessful asylum seekers started around 10 years ago when former minister Peter Dutton and department secretary Mike Pezzullo were in charge . Two people who sought to develop an (undeserved) reputation for strong border control and immigration integrity.

The surge started with asylum applications from Malaysian nationals in 2015-16 and then extended to nationals from China. In 2017-18, around 67 per cent of the record........

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