Asylum seekers living in the community on bridging visas are about 45 times less likely to be charged with a crime than members of the general public.
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Figures released to Fairfax Media by the department of immigration and citizenship show that since November 2011, 12,100 asylum seekers have been released into the community on bridging visas.
A department spokeswoman said that ''a handful'' - or five or less - had been charged with a crime. This equates to just 41.32 people per 100,000 people.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics has not compiled national crime figures for the 2011-12 financial year because New South Wales declined to provide the rates of young offenders to the ABS.
But in 2010-11, the last time it compiled national crime data, the ABS reported that police launched proceedings against 371,040 offenders, or 1896 people per 100,000 people.
This is more than 45 times the number of proceedings lodged against asylum seekers on bridging visas in the community.
On Thursday, the storm over opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison's call for asylum seekers living in the community to be monitored by police and conform to ''behaviour protocols'' entered its second day.
Mr Morrison's comments on Wednesday followed the news that a Sri Lankan asylum seeker had been charged over the sexual assault of a Macquarie University student. The man is accused of entering the room of a sleeping 20-year-old student and putting his hand down her pyjama pants. He fled when she woke up and screamed.
Mr Morrison called for an immediate suspension of asylum seekers being released into the community until protocols were introduced to notify and consult police before people were released into the community, and said neighbours should similarly be warned. He also said asylum seekers should not be housed near ''vulnerable'' people in the community.
Education Minister Peter Garrett and Labor senator Doug Cameron accused Mr Morrison of ''dog whistling'', while Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said she would file formal complaints with the Australian Communications and Media Authority over comments made by ''shock jocks'' about asylum seekers in the wake of Mr Morrison's comments.
She called in the Senate for parliamentarians to stop vilifying asylum seekers and refugees. According to the Immigration Department, about 90 per cent of people who arrived in Australia by boat in the 2011-12 financial year were later found to be refugees.
Senator Hanson-Young said she was appalled by the ''vile comments and further vilification from the opposition''.
''This whole idea of having to establish behaviour protocols, as the Coalition has called for, is ludicrous,'' she said. ''We have behaviour protocols - it's called the law.''
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott rejected any suggestion the Coalition was trying to stir up community concerns about asylum seekers.
''If anyone is guilty of that, I would ask you to look at what the government has had to say recently about section 457 visas,'' he said.
Senator Cameron said there was no evidence refugees or asylum seekers in Australia were criminals.
''The dog whistle you have just seen is the worst politics I have witnessed for many years in this Parliament,'' he said.
