The fake travel documents let the asylum seekers enter Australia on commercial flights instead of fishing boats. 

Travelers into Australia with passports issued from the Gulf States, namely Bahrain and Oman, may well come under greater scrutiny after media reports that fake Australian passports and travel documents are being sold in Malaysia.

Lebanese nationals have been targeted by a syndicate offering travel documents for up to $16,000, an investigation and report by the ABC Four Corners program has revealed.

“In a series of meetings in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur [in November 2013], an Iraqi national known as Abu Tarek was secretly filmed offering the travel documents to potential customers”, the ABC reported.

Instances of alleged criminal activity relating to the immigration portfolio can result in criminal and/or administrative penalties, including imprisonment, warns Scott Morrison, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP)

 16/12/2013: 

An unregistered Melbourne migration agency was raided by federal police on Friday.

 “The business is suspected to have been making false promises of permanent residence as well as providing migration assistance while not being registered to do so,” a statement from DIBP revealed.