The Sydney Morning Herald reported 6,420 Malaysians were living illegally Down Under last year compared to 7,690 people from China, 5,220 from the US and 3,780 from the UK. ― File picKUALA LUMPUR, Dec 27 ― Malaysians ranked the second-highest people in a group of 62,000 visa holders who overstayed their welcome in Australia last year, just after China nationals but ahead of Americans and Britons, an Australian daily reported today.
Citing information from the Australian Immigration Department, the Sydney Morning Herald reported 6,420 Malaysians were living illegally Down Under last year compared to 7,690 people from China, 5,220 from the US and 3,780 from the UK.
“Traditionally the highest number of the unlawfuls have come from the USA and the UK. A lot of them think they are Australian, and they get a bit confused.
“Some of these people might have been here for a very long period of time,” Migration Institute of Australia president Angela Chan was quoted saying in the news report.
The Sydney-based daily added there is an estimated 62,100 people unaccounted for in Australia this year, which is roughly 1.2 per cent of the 5.5 million people who enter the country annually on temporary visas.
Unlike Malaysia, Australia does not have harsh punishments for illegals such as detention, imprisonment and caning of illegal immigrants.
Large numbers of Malaysians have been drawn to Australia for decades, usually to further their studies though a significant number have eventually settled down there.
According to a World Bank report in 2011, the number of skilled Malaysians living abroad rose 300 per cent in the last two decades, with two out of every 10 Malaysians with tertiary education opting to leave for either Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries or Singapore.
A total 308,834 high-skilled Malaysians moved overseas last year, with 47.2 per cent going to Singapore, 18.2 per cent to Australia, 12.2 per cent to US and the rest to other countries like UK and Canada, according to the same World Bank report.
More than two million Malaysians have emigrated since Merdeka.
Earlier this month, the South China Morning Post suggested that Muslim Malays are starting to leave Malaysia as the country’s lurch towards authoritarianism and fundamentalism starts to bite.
A report in the weekend edition of the Hong Kong paper on December 14, titled: “Malay Muslims fleeing country as fundamentalism takes hold” painted a grim picture and suggested an exodus of members of the majority race but gave no numbers or hard data.
Former de facto law minister Datuk Zaid Ibrahim has also said in October that more Malay-Muslims could be expected to leave the country if local religious authorities continue to pursue and prosecute those whose opinions they deem “deviant”.
