Australian Immigration Daily News

What is the legal consequence if a migration agent commits a fraud against his/her client? 

If the agent knowingly and intentionally includes information in the application which is false, does that make the application invalid? 

And will the fraudulent actions of the migration agent be attributed to the client? 

“No one who attempts to travel to Australia illegally by boat will settle in Australia.” 

So Minister Peter Dutton was quoted by the ABC as saying in response to yesterday’s ruling by the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea that the detention of detention seekers on Manus Island breaches the right to personal liberty that is guaranteed by PNG’s constitution. 

It will certainly be interesting to follow what happens in the aftermath of this decision. 

There are times when you read some of the migration cases that are reported in the judgments of the Federal courts, you can feel nothing but the most profound and heartfelt sympathy for the visa applicant. 

Take the case of Bhalla v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection (2016) FCA 395 that was handed down this past Friday, 22 April, for example: 

The applicant in this case was an Indian woman who had married her husband, an Australian citizen, through an arranged marriage, in 2009. She claimed that following the marriage, she was kept in virtual servitude in her in-laws home, mistreated, made to cook and clean and was not permitted to see her parents unaccompanied. 

How can you tell if the Administrative Appeals Tribunal has made a jurisdictional error in a partner visa case? 

That is, of course, a critical question.  Because if you are able to identify a jurisdictional error, then you can advise your client that she/he would have reasonable prospects for success in a judicial review proceeding, and that it would make sense to file an application with the Federal Circuit Court to try to get the decision of the AAT “quashed”, or overturned. 

A decision that was handed down earlier this week by Judge Nicholls, in the case of Butterworth v Minister for Immigration & Anor (2016) FCCA 876 (18 April 2016) does provide some very helpful guidance about when a jurisdictional error has occurred.  So it is definitely a case that is worth knowing about. 

Are things ever as straightforward and simple as they might appear? 

Not usually – right? Not in the sphere of migration law, and not in our everyday experience either! 

A case that was handed down by the Full Court on 14 April – Cotterill v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection (2016) FCAFC 61 – certainly brings this point home.