Australian Immigration Daily News

The Australian Government is currently developing a proposed model for a Commonwealth Forced Marriage Protection Order scheme, in consultation with relevant stakeholders.

“The Government criminalised forced marriage in 2013 to send a clear message that this harmful practice is unacceptable in Australia,” Assistant Minister for Home Affairs, Alex Hawke said.

“Strengthening our response to forced marriage is a key area of focus under the Government’s National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking and Slavery 2015–19.“The Government has already committed to provide victims of forced marriage access up to 200 days of support through the Support for Trafficked People Program without being required to contribute to a criminal investigation or prosecution. “Forced Marriage Protection Orders will complement our existing criminal offences and provide a flexible civil remedy for people in, or at risk of, forced marriage.”

Details issues identified after receiving significant number of complaints about education agent based in Queensland

This paper details issues identified by our Office after receiving a significant number of complaints about an education agent based in Queensland, who allegedly defrauded overseas students of tuition and other fees.

As a result of the Office’s investigations and the valuable collaboration and support of other departments and agencies, positive results were achieved for those students who were enrolled but had not been paid a refund of the fees they were entitled to under the Education Services for Overseas Students (ESOS) Act. However, those who were not yet enrolled (i.e. intending students) fell outside of the protection framework.

Mr Manthorpe emphasised that “while the actions of one agent are not indicative of a system failure, this incident has highlighted opportunities for improvements when it comes to the administration of the international student protection framework”.

Source: Commonwealth-Ombudsman-issues-paper-released-re-administration-of-international-student-protection.pdf

This report provides information on the processing status and outcomes of the applicants who are Illegal Maritime Arrivals (IMAs) and are in the IMA Legacy Caseload.

IMAs can only apply for a Temporary Protection Visa (subclass 785) (TPV) or a Safe Haven Enterprise Visa (subclass 790) (SHEV) if the Minister has made a decision that it is in the public interest to lift a legislative bar on making a valid visa application in Australia. Where the Minister lifts the bar, the Department will advise the IMA that they are eligible to apply for a TPV or a SHEV.

Source: IMA-Legacy-Caseload.pdf

Purpose of the Bill

The Home Affairs Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2018 (the Bill) is an omnibus Bill which makes various amendments to migration, customs and passenger movement laws. The Bill:

• amends the Migration Act 1958 to:

– clarify that where the removal of a non-citizen from the migration zone to another country is unsuccessful, a visa is not required to bring the person back to Australia and they remain subject to statutory bars on subsequent visa applications, where applicable (Schedule 1)

– provide that the Minister may make documents available to a person by way of an online account (Schedule 2)

• amends the Customs Act 1901 to:

– provide that the Commonwealth may appropriate money from the Consolidated Revenue Fund to pay refunds, rebates or drawbacks of customs duty in circumstances where those payments have no other statutory basis (Schedule 3)

– make minor technical amendments (Schedule 5) and

• amends the Passenger Movement Charge Collection Act 1978 to specify that regulations may make provision for the charging and recovery of fees in relation to the Passenger Movement Charge (Schedule 4).

Source: Home-Affairs-Legislation-Amendment-Miscellaneous-Measures-Bill-2018.pdf

Today:

JOURNALIST: Why should migrants have to pass the basic English test to be Australian citizens?

PRIME MINISTER: I didn’t hear all of your question, but it is plainly in everybody’s interest that everyone ideally should have English language skills. So, we have the most successful multicultural society in the world. It is based on integration and the key to integration is obviously, English. That’s the national language, that’s how you can engage in the economy, in society and education. So, it’s in everyone’s interest to do that and we understand that there have been some concerns raised about the level of the English test and we’re looking at that, to make it more like a sort of conversational English at a sort of primary school level, being the initial goal. I think that’s reasonable. Alan Tudge is working carefully with a lot of the migrant communities. But everyone should recognize that we all have a vested interest in being able to converse and engage in our national language. So we don’t make, there is no need for any apologies for saying this. It’s perfectly obvious. If this is an English speaking country, then we want everyone to be able to achieve their best in our great nation and they can do that by being able to speak with each other and indeed listen to the very wise political commentary from our Australian media.