DIBP has made it illegal to offer commissions out of Training Benchmark A funds and is now conducting an audit of known training institutions allegedly misusing training funds. 

Late last year, Sydney TAFE was reportedly under investigation for alleged fraud in its use of millions of dollars from a training program for students on 457 visas. “Sydney Institute of TAFE generated $3.3 million last year from migration agents who were paid $380,000 in commissions for recruiting students on 457 visas” according to a report in The Sydney Morning Herald.

Convenor of Migration Alliance, Christopher Levingston says:

"It is understood that following the investigation Sydney TAFE was given a clean bill of health and that the allegations in the SMH article were without foundation.  It is understood that the allegations were made to the journalist by a former disgruntled TAFE employee.   As far as MA is aware any commissions paid to RMAs by Sydney TAFE did not come out of training benchmark payments made by employers.  'Commission payments' were made from other general funds held and maintained by Sydney TAFE".

The Migration Alliance then published on this blog that that a full audit of Training Benchmark A should be undertaken by the DIBP or some other body to ensure that the funds are spent properly and not left sitting in accounts or even worse being improperly misdirected.

That audit is now well underway. DIBP has confirmed that it is currently conducting an audit of known providers in response to recent allegations of misuse of funds contributed for the purpose of meeting the subclass 457 training benchmark requirements.

What exactly ‘known providers’ means is not explained but surely they must start out with those offering a ‘40% commission’.

DIBP also requires Benchmark A funds are directed to an ‘industry training fund’.  These are statutory authorities responsible for providing funding for training of eligible workers in certain industries. Therefore, no payments can be made to TAFEs, Universities or ‘recognised industry bodies’, where there are statutory industry fund operating in the same sector as the applicant. Contributions to private registered training organisations (RTOs) do not satisfy the requirements of Training Benchmark A.

DIBP has indicated that it is not concerned with the payment of commissions per se. Commissions just cannot be paid out from the funds received for the purposes of meeting the benchmark.

On a related issue, the Migration Alliance noted that the Victorian Training Market Half Year Report revealed that some TAFEs were at financial risk. Migration Alliance wrote to Senator Michaelia Cash, Assistant Minister, DIBP and Kim Vance, Director, Program Delivery DIBP with these facts and the concern that employers are being encouraged to send funds to institutions that may be at financial risk.

"As top any prohibition or threat to withdraw an approval of a Training Organisation by reason of the payment of a commission does not have any statutory basis and may well be a threat but nothing more". says Christopher Levingston.

MIGRATION ALLIANCE VIDEO RELEASE

The new Migration Alliance video is now live and will soon be uploaded to the homepage.  Watch it here:

Is unregistered migration practice helping women from Hong Kong pose as English language students to gain entry into Australia to work in the country's lucrative sex trade? According to a report in the South China Morning Post (SCMP) a spokesman for the Australian department of immigration said it was not aware of language schools being used as fronts for illegal sex work however women's advocated groups say the problem is rampant.

The DIBP spokesmen, oddly enough, pointed out to the SCMP that those on student visas could legally work for up to 20 hours per week while attending classes. Prostitution is legal in Australia. Does DIBP see the issue then as working in excess of 20 hours?

Women's advocate groups in Hong Kong warn that these young women lured into Australia by syndicates risk falling into sex slavery and debt bondage.

“The practice has been going on for several years and some schools are complicit in facilitating the work, according to sex workers' associations and sources close to the prostitutes,” states the report referring to sources from women’s advocate groups in Hong Kong.

The Australian media also recently highlighted the issue noting that perceived higher wages and an easier lifestyle have long lured Asian sex workers to Australia. A University of New South Wales study found that more than half of Sydney's prostitutes were Asian.

"In the past three weeks, I have met up with 17 new ladies who have travelled to Sydney from Hong Kong on student paperwork supplied by the school, so they can enter Sydney and commence working in brothels," according to an unnamed SCMP source who claimed to have helped the women settle in Australia. The women typically hailed from towns in the New Territories and can earn about HK$60,000 (AU$10,000) per week by working seven-day weeks in Sydney's brothels, the SCMP source said.

Paperwork from the schools helped them pass immigration but was quickly discarded upon arrival, said the source, adding that the women even joked about not attending class.

Police allege they have identified a fraudulent identity manufacturing operation in Sydney which had created thousands of fake identification cards, including licences, Medicare cards and credit cards.

The operation began when Australian Customs and Border Protection Service (ACBPS) officers detected 5000 NSW driver licence holograms after they arrived concealed in a package from China, according to a media release from the NSW Police.

Some of those cards had been used to commit fraud offences against financial institutions across Sydney. Police will also allege that false identification was used by one person to board a domestic flight.

Early yesterday (Wednesday 25 February 2015), officers executed search warrants at homes in Canley Vale, Rockdale and Lakemba. Four people have been arrested and a fraudulent identification manufacturing operation has been shut down following a joint-agency investigation by the Identity Security Strike Team. NSW Police Force Fraud and Cybercrime Squad Commander, Detective Superintendent Arthur Katsogiannis, said this was another successful multi-agency investigation into an organised criminal syndicate involved in what police would allege was a highly sophisticated operation into the high level manufacturing of fake identification cards and other documentation.

The Identity Security Strike Team (ISST) is a multi-jurisdictional initiative between the NSW Police Force, the Australian Federal Police (AFP), and the Department of Immigration and Border Protection. It investigates high level, complex identity fraud and related security matters under both Commonwealth and State legislation.

Michael Jeremy (on the left in the picture) will be presenting two separate, full-day 10-point CPD blitzes in Perth on 13 March and 14 March 2015.   Here is what the super-guru of Australian immigration has to say:

"I really enjoy delivering training workshops as these OFFER a much more interactive and interesting learning environment.

I always learn new things and see things from different perspectives as a result of the broad range of experiences held in the workshop. It also gives PARTICIPANTS a greater ability to get to know each other and find out what their colleagues are interested in, specialise in and how to create networks in an often isolating industry.

The topics we'll be discussing in Perth:

•     The ever-changing General Skilled Migration, 'this is not an application' - Expression Of Interest (EOI). Not to be outdone, the states, territories and regions of Australia also have their own Skilled Occupation Lists, skill and English criteria and systems of invitation to the party. The Immigration Department also has interesting and growing cancellation powers over permanent visas.

•     Ministerial Intervention, which is an interesting, complex and explosive area of immigration in which to practice. Migration professionals must always remember that this is about the 'Minister' NOT the 'Department'.

•     The notorious 457 Visa is, in my opinion, one of the most complicated programs within skilled migration. It really is about Australian employers and their ability to abide by the sponsorship obligations. This is a really interesting area of Immigration law in which to practice.

•     ENS (Employer Nomination Scheme). This is widely misunderstood to be 'permanent sponsorship'. It's nothing of the sort. We'll go through some interesting aspects of the regs and how to best advise clients on pathways and streams.

•     The Health Criteria is my favourite seminar. The Health Crtieria apply to every person who seeks entry to Australia and to remain in Australia, it's the standards of evidence that differ across individuals and how those standards of evidence are best determined. In this seminar we'll look at HIV, Ebola and medical conditions such as Schizophrenia. We'll also discuss how best to manage an application for a health waiver.

I invite all attendants to come armed with questions and issues to raise within the group."