Almost 32,000 asylum seekers who have already arrived in Australia by boat will never get permanent settlement and will be stripped of the right to appeal to the courts, under a policy to be announced today by the Coalition.
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It will also introduce indefinite work-for-the-dole obligations for those found to be refugees.
A Coalition government will scrap the right of asylum seekers to appeal to the courts, which in the March quarter brought the rate of asylum seekers who were granted refugee status from 65.3 per cent to more than 90 per cent.
Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said the Coalition would return to a ''non-statutory'' process, in which a single caseworker would decide the fate of asylum seekers.
According to Department of Immigration figures compiled last week, 31,986 asylum seekers are living either in the community on bridging visas, in community detention, are held in mainland detention centres or are on Manus Island and Nauru.
Mr Morrison and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott will on Friday announce that a Coalition government will deny these people the right to ever settle in Australia, creating a crucial point of difference between the two major parties, which are now united on stopping the boats.
''The key points of difference are that Labor would give them permanent visas, but we'll give them temporary visas,'' Mr Morrison said. ''There's been a lot of focus on stopping the boats, as there should be, but that sort of passes over what's almost a bigger task, which is the legacy caseload of tens of thousands of people in the system [since Labor came to power].''
Mr Morrison also flagged tough new rules for assessing the refugee claims of those who arrive by boat without documentation, despite the fact it is not illegal to claim asylum in Australia without papers. But he said specific details about the assessment process could only be determined in government, because parts of the policy would be subject to challenge in the High Court.
The Howard government introduced temporary protection visas (TPVs) for refugees in 1999.
Under the Coalition's revamped scheme, people would only be given a TPV after being found to be a refugee and being released into the community.
They would be kept in an enforced state of limbo, and allowed only a temporary visa for up to three years, after which they could apply for another visa if it was not safe to return to their homeland.
They would be forbidden to apply for family reunion, and from re-entry to the country - meaning they couldn't leave and return - and would be required to work for the dole.
Ramping up Labor's controversial ''screening-out'' process, which has led to more than 1000 would-be asylum seekers being returned to their countries before their refugee applications were complete, the Coalition would adopt a scheme by which those with no ''prima facie'' prospect of success would be dealt with first. Those found not to be refugees would face indefinite detention or return to their homelands.
''One of the key contributors to cost, and also to people's sense of wellbeing, is this endless state of uncertainty,'' Mr Morrison said. ''So is it a yes, or is it a no? And if it's a no, then they're not in the community, they're in detention.''
But unlike Labor - which includes boat arrivals in its 20,000 humanitarian intake each year - the Coalition would exempt the 13,750 people it would give humanitarian visas each year from the TPV process.
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