Australia to detain tourists who overstay visas amid immigration crackdown

More than 77,000 visa overstayers face detention or departure as Australia cracks down on immigration violations.

Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke attends a news conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on December 19, 2025 [File: Dominic Giannini/EPA]

Australia will begin detaining visa overstayers as part of a broader immigration crackdown, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke announced.

The Australian Border Force will expand its team by 100 compliance officers, who will work to detain or encourage the departure of roughly 77,000 people currently living in Australia without a valid visa, Burke said Thursday.

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He said the policy was designed to reintroduce consequences for overstaying.

“Before 2015, we had a routine process in Australia for overstayers where, when people had overstayed a visa, we would bring people into detention centres … and within a few weeks they would organise their own flight and leave,” Burke announced at the National Press Club.

To aid the operation, 250 new detention beds will be created, including the possible use of a former quarantine facility in Melbourne.

He rejected comparisons to the United States’ hardline Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, saying, “This is not the sort of operation that some people have seen on TV happening in other countries.”

Burke also said the government would clamp down on “visa hopping”, a system that Canberra alleges is when foreigners who are already in Australia move from one type of temporary visa to another to extend their stay.

A new “No Further Stay” provision would prevent people arriving on tourist visas from lodging new applications once inside the country, while international students would be required to advance their qualifications when seeking a new study visa, closing off the option of jumping between courses at low-level institutions to extend their stay.

Burke said separate legislation would be needed to curb a significant caseload of people making what he called “disingenuous” asylum claims to prolong their time in the country.

Rights groups pushed back, and the Human Rights Law Centre warned the change could deter exploited undocumented workers from reporting abuse.

Australia’s governing Labor Party has denied that its tightened visa rules are a response to the growing popularity of the far-right One Nation Party, which has emerged as one of the country’s most popular parties in 2026.

Australia remains one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations, drawing millions of annual visitors with its beaches, wildlife and cities, while also relying heavily on international students and working-holiday visa holders as a major source of migration and economic activity.

The overstayer population has grown steadily, from about 64,000 in 2016 to more than 77,000 in 2026, even as net overseas migration has fallen.

澳大利亚严厉打击移民违规行为，超过77000名签证逾期滞留者面临拘留或离境。

2025年12月19日，澳大利亚内政部长托尼·伯克在澳大利亚堪培拉国会大厦出席新闻发布会。[图片：Dominic Giannini/EPA]

澳大利亚内政部长托尼·伯克宣布，作为更广泛的移民打击行动的一部分，澳大利亚将开始拘留签证逾期滞留者。

伯克周四表示，澳大利亚边境执法局将扩充100名合规官员，他们的工作是拘留或劝离目前居住在澳大利亚但没有有效签证的约77000人。

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他说，这项政策旨在重新引入逾期居留的后果。

伯克在国家新闻俱乐部宣布：“2015 年之前，澳大利亚对逾期居留者有一套常规的处理流程，当有人签证逾期滞留时，我们会将他们带到拘留中心……几周之内，他们就会自行安排航班离开。”

为了协助开展这项行动，将新增 250 个拘留床位，其中可能包括使用墨尔本一处以前的隔离设施。

他驳斥了将此举与美国强硬的移民和海关执法局 (ICE) 相提并论的说法，并表示：“这不是一些人在电视上看到的其他国家发生的那种行动。”

伯克还表示，政府将严厉打击“签证跳跃”行为。堪培拉方面称，“签证跳跃”是指已经在澳大利亚的外国人从一种临时签证转到另一种临时签证以延长其在澳停留时间。

一项新的“不得延期停留”条款将阻止持旅游签证入境的人员在入境后提交新的申请，而国际学生在申请新的学习签证时将被要求提升学历，从而杜绝了在低级别院校之间辗转修读课程以延长停留时间的途径。

伯克表示，需要制定单独的法律来遏制大量他称之为“虚伪的”庇护申请，以延长其在该国停留时间的案件。

人权组织对此表示反对，人权法律中心警告说，这一变化可能会阻碍受剥削的无证工人举报虐待行为。

澳大利亚执政的工党否认其收紧签证规定是为了应对极右翼政党一国党日益增长的人气。一国党已成为澳大利亚2026年最受欢迎的政党之一。

澳大利亚仍然是世界上最受欢迎的旅游目的地之一，每年凭借其海滩、野生动物和城市吸引数百万游客，同时，国际学生和打工度假签证持有者也是澳大利亚移民和经济活动的主要来源。

尽管海外净移民人数有所下降，但逾期居留人口数量却稳步增长，从 2016 年的约 64,000 人增加到 2026 年的超过 77,000 人。