An increase in the number of allegations relating to the facilitating of fake marriages for visas has prompted a crackdown by the department of immigration on the scam. In a joint effort with the department of Human Services, the move will target welfare recipients who are on single payments but have declared sponsorship of a partner for immigration purposes.

Using the new data-matching programme, a joint media release by the two department states that it will be easier to identify fake couples who are fraudulently claiming social security payments, or committing migration fraud.

“This data-matching programme is part of a whole-of-government approach to fraud detection and prevention. People who deliberately take advantage of Australia’s welfare and migration system will be caught,” sated, the Immigration minister, Mr Peter Dutton, adding,” “The consequences are serious – people may be forced to repay the benefits they were not entitled to, have their visa application refused, or face criminal charges.”

Human Services minister Ms Marise Payne said, “Last financial year, data-matching activities conducted by my Department returned $132.7 million in net benefits to government.

Recently, two people were ordered to stand trial over an alleged visa marriage scam in Brisbane.

Chetan Mohanlal Mashru and Divya Krishne Gowda were, accused of arranging more than a dozen fake weddings. The Magistrates Court was told the ceremonies took place in Brisbane around 2011 so Indian men could stay in Australia.

After years of making decisions for Australian immigration clients, and hard decisions at that, I thought that I would share what I have learned from the decision making process.

Most decisions we make, we make with other people.  It is my view that it is genuinely better to make decisions collaboratively.  The reasons for this are as follows:

• The risk is spread
• The decisions are mostly better
• Individual shortcomings are mitigated
• There is a shared vision and shared responsibility
• There can be the building of consensus and buy-in
• People feel included which increases motivation

Whilst decision making is hard to evaluate as we can't see the alternative universe, what I have learned to be true, is that if you average the decisions of a bunch of people then you reduce error. 

Surging numbers of students, tourists and workers on short-term visas mean that as many as 1.9 million foreigners are likely to be in the country at any one time over the course of 2015, according to Michael Pezzullo, Secretary of the Department of Immigration.

Over the year, more than 5 million visas are expected to be issued this year, said Mr Pezzullo, in a speech at the Australian National University (and reported in The Australian). Although over three quarters of those numbers will be tourists, the number of traditional permanent migrants is also surging, with this year's intake likely to surpass the existing record of 185,000, which was set in 1969.

Mr Pezzulo pointed to a rapid shift in the ethnic composition of new migrants away from Europe towards east and southern Asia.

The number of Chinese-born Australians has more than tripled to almost 450,000 in the space of two decades, he said.

Those born in India has risen more than four-fold in that time, to almost 400,000. 

Figures just released by the department of immigration revealed that some 450 foreigners in Australia have had their visa cancelled since July 2014 after being convicted of serious crimes in Australia. Another 100 visa applications were refused under character provisions.

Compared with the previous year this represents an increase of over 450 per cent in visa cancellations and an increase of over 40 per cent in visa refusal decisions. Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Peter Dutton said these actions prove the Government is serious about protecting Australians from foreign criminals.

The DIBP media release noted that in the same period, of the 450 visas cancelled, 34 removals have taken place from New South Wales, with Western Australia (13), Victoria (11) and Queensland (10) together accounting for another 34 removals. 

“My message to the minority of people who travel to Australia and violate community standards is that they should consider themselves on notice; we will continue to target you by cancelling your visa and will remove you from Australia as soon as possible,” stated the Minister.

Under changes made by the Australian Government, mandatory visa cancellations can apply to non-citizens convicted of serious crimes like murder, rape, sexual assault and drug crime.

Over the last year, seventy-one people have been deported following criminal convictions in Australia, including nine pedophiles, six rapists and one murderer.

A Darwin-based hospitality business has been ordered to pay a record fine for exploiting at least 10 foreign 457 Visa workers as cheap labour; illegally forcing them to pay migration agent costs and forging documents to mislead Immigration officials.

Choong Enterprises Pty Ltd, the Director of Choong Enterprises, and one other person were found to have breached their sponsor obligations under the Migration Act. The fine amounting to over $175,000 was ordered by Justice John Mansfield who said the “civil penalty regime” was integral to “secure the integrity of the Australian labour market by ensuring people who are sponsored to work here are not employed in a manner that undercuts standard employment conditions”, and added that “It also protects those who are brought to Australia and who are vulnerable to exploitation.”

The offending took place at the expense of 10 Filipino workers employed as cooks, restaurant managers and food and beverage supervisors by the Nightcliff-based business — which operates a number of restaurants and cafes in Darwin and the NT — between 2009 and 2012. The company director Ronald Choong was found to have gained a direct benefit by enabling the offending as the sole director and shareholder, according to a report in the NT Times.

“This is the first civil penalty application my Department has undertaken in the Federal Court, and is the largest civil penalty any court has imposed for a breach of sponsor obligations,” Minister Cash said. “This action highlights the fact that the Government takes any alleged breach of 457 visa sponsorship very seriously and will pursue court action if appropriate.”

The court found that Choong Enterprises had paid 457 visa holders as little as $12 an hour, failed to abide by its record keeping obligations, had knowingly produced false pay records and had illegally recovered the costs of migration agent fees from four visa holders, among other contraventions. It found that that the director of Choong Enterprises, Ronald Choong, had aided and abetted these breaches.

“The stiff penalty this company has received should send a warning to other sponsors: if you fail to meet your requirements, my Department may impose administrative sanctions, issue an infringement notice, execute an enforceable undertaking, or apply to the federal court for a civil penalty order,” Minister Cash said in a media release.