Australian Immigration Crackdown

[david96]

Warning bells rung over sham marriages

By David Humphries

December 29, 2005

MORE Australians are resorting to sham marriages to help foreigners get around tightened entry rules, Immigration Department figures suggest.

In the past financial year, 1909 Australians were dobbed in for allegedly contriving marriages and relationships - a 22 per cent jump on the previous year.

Three out of every five allegations were made in NSW.

Investigations resulted in 15 prosecutions and six convictions. The organisation of phony marriages to deceive immigration authorities can lead to 10 years' jail and a $100,000 fine.

In its report on immigration compliance, released today, the Immigration Department says phony marriages "put at risk Australia's migration program not only through the entry of individuals otherwise not eligible for migration, but also through the chain migration effects" of family reunion.

The report also reveals a border control "alert list" of 386,000 people - up a quarter on last year - and 2.3 million suspect travel documents - up by a third.

The Movement Alert List is a checkpoint for visa assessments as well as airline departures to Australia, and arrival here.

But a person need not intend to travel to Australia to be on the international database, and being on it does not automatically preclude an Australian visa.

Forty per cent of those on the alert list are judged high-risk for reasons that include national security and organised immigration fraud.

The medium-risk group includes criminals and the ill, and accounts for 30 per cent. The other 30 per cent, the low-risk, include previous visa overstayers.

Making the best of a rocky year, the Immigration Minister, Amanda Vanstone, said the Managing the Border report answered those who "wondered how my department operates on the front line".

In a record year of 20 million people movements in and out of the country, the department's "mechanism, efficiency and overall effectiveness are consistently a step ahead", she said.

The report shows a 5 per cent pick-up in visitor numbers after fears of terrorism and the SARS scare in Asia reduced tourism.

Half of the 11 million arrivals were Australian or New Zealand citizens.

The 4.2 million Australians crossing the border was up on the 3.5 million recorded a year earlier, "probably due to expatriate Australians returning to Australia due to global security concerns", the department said.

Of the 10.4 million people who arrived by air, 1632 were refused immigration clearance at airports - a jump of 32 per cent.

The department said factors included more sophisticated fraud detection, closer scrutiny of some profiles and an increase in total passenger numbers.

The department reported "an emerging pattern of labour hire agents sub-contracting labour to farmers or other businesses, with the agents recruiting unlawful non-citizens, welfare beneficiaries and people with visas that do not permit work".

Prostitution accounted for 7.5 per cent of the 3870 people found to be working illegally, a 14 per cent jump.

[gburns57au]

This is not a crackdown..

It is a report on the usual running of the immigration department, it would seem that more people are being dobbed in for immigration non compliance but it is not the result of a premeditated campaign by the Immigration Department.

What they are saying is that if you do not comply with your visa conditions or you enter Australia under false pretences then it is more than likely you will get caught.

[samran]

On the otherside of the coin...there should be a list preventing certain Australians from ever leaving, lest they be a total embarrasment to the rest of us.

[Nignoy]

On the otherside of the coin...there should be a list preventing certain Australians from ever leaving, lest they be a total embarrasment to the rest of us.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

OOPS silly me thinking all you needed to get into Oz, Was either be a top sportsperson or a criminal record, criminal record worked for me!! (for our slower colonial readers this is called Sarcasm ) nignoy