Sri Lankans asylum seekers had the highest rate of applications to the Refugee Review Tribunal in the last financial year.
The Migration Review Tribunal (MRT) annual report was tabled in the Senate on Tuesday.
The report said the Refugee arm of the tribunal received 4229 applications - 1518 from asylum seekers who arrived by boat.
The bulk of applicants among boat arrival asylum seekers were from Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan.
Chinese asylum seekers were heavily represented in the non-boat arrival category.
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Overall, the Migration Review Tribunal completed 19,347 reviews in 2012/13, up from 10,815 the previous year.
Skilled visas, students visas and partner visa cases made up the majority of cases.
The MRT and Refugee Review Tribunal conduct merit reviews of visa and visa-related decisions made by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection.
