NATION Hidden horde of migrants

MORE than 60,000 foreign students and tourists are living in hiding in Australia, as Home Affairs officials admit they are “toothless’’ in detecting blackmarket migrants.

Home Affairs staff now want landlords and childcare centres to verify visas before they let people rent a house or enrol their kids in daycare.

And they are demanding tougher screening before people can open a bank account, get an Australian driver’s licence or obtain a WorkCover licence to work on a building site.

An internal Government report warns that “the power balance is tilted in favour of visa over- stayers’’.

Australia now has 62,900 illegal migrants in hiding – three- quarters of them tourists and 15 per cent foreign stu- dents who refused to fly home when their visas expired.

A staggering 18,750 illegal migrants – the equivalent of Australia’s annual refugee intake – have been living in Australia for at least 15 years.

A third of illegal migrants have been settled in Australia for at least a decade.

A quarter of the unwanted migrants came from Malaysia or China, but 5170 are Americans and 3680 are British.

The number of illegal Malaysian migrants has more than doubled in five years to 9440.

A new report commissioned by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, recently renamed Home Affairs, states that “temporary visitors to Australia are willing to risk remaining illegal as they are making far more money in Australia than they could at home’’.