The top brass of the Australian Border Force (ABF) has publically apologised for the bungled “Operation Fortitude’ on a ‘clumsily worded” media release indicating that there was no intention to randomly check the visa status of whoever the ABF officers came across. In contrast, internal emails obtained by the ABC show that ABF officers actually planned to conduct ‘status checks’.

DIBP has gone into damage control again. Just after Secretary of Immigration Michael Pezzullo and Border Force Commissioner Roman Quaedvlieg both publically apologised for the "clumsily worded" media release that led to public outcry and protest against ABFs attempt to conduct illegal visa checks on August 20 this year, the ABC's 7.30 Report has discovered documents showing that six ABF officers were to conduct "status checks" at two taxi ranks, speaking with members of the public who they suspected could be in Australia illegally and without a valid visa.

Facing a Senate Committee, Mr Pezzullo seemed to brush off the saga as an over-reaction from the media and the public for an honest mistake. He told the senate estimates committee that "It is clear that the media release issued that morning was very badly worded and gave rise to the impression that the ABF has general powers of questioning people in the street. It does not, and I apologise for the impression that was wrongly created.

"We certainly don't rely on racial profiling at all" said Secretary of Immigration Michael Pezzullo.

However, the ABC has discovered that talking points and the associated media release were approved within a number of levels with the final version reaching the Minister’s office. The internal documents obtained by the ABC describe the role of ABF officers as being "positioned at various locations within the Melbourne CBD, speaking to individuals who we suspect may be in Australia illegally without a current and valid visa".

The points said if officers were asked by journalists who they would target they should reply: "We will be speaking with any individual we cross paths with."

Here is a link to the notice on the DIBP website: http://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Visa/Syst

The following message is cut and paste from ImmiAccount on the DIBP website:

• Please see information below for issues currently impacting Online Lodgement users: SYSTEM MAINTENANCE – 20-21 NOVEMBER 2015 There will be an outage of our systems for a number of improvements from 9pm Friday 20 November 2015 until 9am Saturday 21 November AEDT (GMT +11). This will include changes to questions in our online application forms. We recommend that you complete and submit any applications that you have started, before the outage. Applications that have a status of ‘Ready to submit’ or ‘Awaiting documents’ at 9pm on 20 November will be changed to ‘Incomplete’, as you may be required to answer additional questions to submit a valid application. BPAY will be unavailable as an online payment option for the following forms from midnight Sunday 15 November until completion of the outage: • Citizenship by Descent • Citizenship by Conferral • Temporary Work (Short Stay Activity) Visa (400) • Temporary Work Skilled Visa (Primary) (457) • Temporary Work Skilled Visa (Subsequent Entrant) (457) • Temporary Work Skilled Visa - Nomination (457) • Temporary Work Skilled Visa - Standard Business Sponsorship (457) • Visitor Visa (600). Your BPAY payment must be received by the Department by Friday 20 November. BPAY payments can take up to 3 days to transfer from your bank to the Department. Your application will not be submitted or processed until the payment is received and matched to your application. Once we have received the payment, the status of your application will change to ‘Application received’. If you do not make your BPAY payment in time, you can make an immediate payment by credit card before 9pm Friday 20 November. Go to ‘Manage Payments’, find the application with status ‘Awaiting Payment’ and then select actions ‘Make Payment’. Enter your credit card details and submit. If we do not receive payment in time you will need to start a new application. EVIDENCE OF POLIO VACCINATION Visa applicants, applying from outside Australia, who have spent 28 days or longer in Afghanistan, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia or Syria, or in any combination of these countries, on or after 5 May 2014 should provide a vaccination certificate as evidence that they have been vaccinated against polio. Failure to provide the certificate may result in delays processing your application. This measure is in response to the World Health Organization's declaration of wild poliovirus transmission as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. For further information, please refer to http://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Visa/Heal/overview-of-the-health-requirement/threats-to-public-health We apologise for any inconvenience these issues may cause.
• Please see information below for issues currently impacting VEVO users: SYSTEM MAINTENANCE – 20-21 NOVEMBER 2015 There will be an outage of our systems for a number of improvements from 9pm Friday 20 November 2015 until 9am Saturday 21 November AEDT (GMT +11). INCORRECT VEVO ENTITLEMENT CHECKS FOR PASSPORT HOLDERS OF SIERRA LEONE AND GUINEA Some passport holders of Sierra Leone and Guinea may be incorrectly shown as having “No Entitlements” or that the query cannot be processed and to contact the department when a VEVO Entitlement Check is undertaken on them by a registered organisation. If this occurs, please have the visa holder enter "VEVO for Visa Holders" to conduct their own VEVO Entitlement Check and use the "Send Email" function to send their details to you directly from VEVO. Alternatively, please re-enter your query and add the letters “XXX” to the end of the passport number when completing the Passport / ImmiCard number field. This will allow you to use VEVO’s Online Referral functionality to request our staff complete the VEVO Entitlement Check on your b

It has been brought to our attention from joint MIA-MA members, that LexisNexis are advertising learning sessions via the MIA.

We would like to remind RMAs that it is our honest belief that the best professional library is still LegendCOM.  LegendCOM is the RMA professional Library product offered by the DIBP.  LegendCOM is a cost-neutral professional library and is offered for sale on a cost-recovery basis only by the DIBP.

To the best of our knowledge, for every RMA that signs up to LexisNexis, and has been referred by the MIA, the MIA is earning commission on sales.  Migration Alliance was once offered commission by LexisNexis but declined, and cut ties with LexisNexis citing 'the product fell short of the expectations of the profession'. 

MIA members who are joint members of Migration Alliance (MIA-MA members) have complained in writing to Migration Alliance about the email from Angela Chan.  The main complaint RMAs provide is the 'lack of consultation before the meeting'.

An ambitious target has been set by Austrade in its market development plan, to double the number of foreign students here to 1 million by the year 2025.

This could see the value of the education industry rise to over $36 billion in just 10 years. According to the report Australian International Education 2025, part of the growth plan is to promote Australian education in new markets more aggressively. John Angley, general manager at Austrade, said several regions have been earmarked for development and they include Brazil, Colombia, West Africa and the Gulf States.

“We’ll always be welcoming eligible Indian and Chinese students but we think that if we’re going to grow the size of the market, we should also take the opportunity and diversify where students come from,” Mr Angley told PIE news. He added that these are “markets which aren’t new to Australia but have potential to build stronger relationships.”

The sector however faces numerous challenges including capacity, maintaining quality and keeping public opinion on its side.

The Australia International Education Conference held in Adelaide earlier this month warned that the government was not doing enough to explain to the Australian public the importance of the education industry and international students to the economy.

Commentators pointed out that in a slowing economy, foreign workers and foreign students are unfortunately targeted by politicians as the source of the problem with many often threatening to reduce the numbers with no due consideration of the actual and significant contribution of these international visitors to the economy.