A Sri Lankan Tamil asylum-seeker has died after setting himself on fire while awaiting a visa decision in Australia, Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said on Monday.

Leorsin Seemanpillai, 29, who was living in Geelong, outside Melbourne, after being granted a temporary visa a year ago, suffered burns to 90 per cent of his body after the incident on Saturday morning.

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He died on Sunday in a Melbourne hospital.

Immigration Minister of Australia  Scott Morrison says the death of an asylum seeker who set himself on fire over the weekend in Geelong was a "terrible and tragic incident".

But the Minister is warning his critics against making "assumptions" about what led Sri Lankan manLeorsin Seemanpillai to take his life.

Seemanpillai arrived in Darwin on January 9, 2013, and was granted a bridging visa with work rights in June last year.

His family in India has been contacted and have requested he be given a Roman Catholic funeral in Geelong.

"The man on this occasion had been receiving community mental health support and had been for some period of time," Morrison told reporters in Canberra.

He said Seemanpillai had not received an outcome on his visa application, and that his claim for asylum was still being processed.

"There was no indication he was being removed anywhere or he hadn't been found to be a refugee or for that matter that he had," he said.

"This man sadly died as a result of a very serious set of injuries that were self-inflicted.

"And I don't think we're in any position - and I frankly don't think anyone is in any position - to draw any conclusions about what is in a person's mind in this situation." (with inputs from New Strait Times and Radio Australia) - Picture : File photo