The following news is just in from the Victorian Government:

Welcome to the Victorian Government's Agent Alert for migration agents and representatives.

A former DIBP official and her husband who were involved in a $3 million visa racket were allowed to flee the country with more than $1 million in the bank days after their home was raided by federal agents. Reetika Ajjan, a former DIBP employee, is accused of supplying government information and equipment to an illegal racket run by her husband Jeetender, which resulted in more than 1,000 fraudulent visa applications, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

A police raid at the couple's house in October 2011 turned up almost $500,000 in cash, which was enough to charge the couple. But Mr and Ms Ajjan were able to flee the country because the Immigration Department failed to seize passports or ensure a criminal charge was laid quickly.

The couple were also able to wire $1.2 million to India in the days after the raid and before they fled to India.

Secret briefings from the Immigration Department, obtained by the Sydney Morning Herald, reported that investigators thought Ms Ajjan should be charged for dealing ‘with proceeds of crime of a value exceeding $100,000', which carries a penalty of up to 20 years in jail.

Ms Ajjan and her husband are now living in Delhi and Australian authorities are attempting to recover the $1.2 million she transferred to India, which is believed to be the proceeds of crime, but the Australian Federal Police has indicated the money may be difficult to recover.

Members might be interested in a complaint that I was copied into today.  The complaint has gone in to the DIBP.  Names have been removed for confidentiality reasons and replaced with XXXXXX.  This is not the first complaint of its kind:

I would like to make a complaint about a case officer who I believe has failed to treat my client with fairness, open and reasonable which has resulted my client to fall into unfavourable circumstances (see below).

The case officer, XXXXXXXXXXX (Position Number: 60002844) refused a nomination application (Nomination TRN XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX) on 15 July 2014 and withdrew the corresponding subclass 457 visa (TRN: XXXXXXXXXXXX) on the same day without giving the client the opportunity of 28 days to comment on information for a Temporary Work(Skilled) (subclass 457) commonly known as IMMI Natural Justice letter which are normally given to other subclass 457 applicants.

The report below was prepared for the Department of Immigration and Border Protection by Wayne Sievers. 

This was downloaded from an article published in the Sydney Morning Herald entitled “Terror touches down: visa fraud, migration crime ‘rampant,’ Immigration Department files reveal”.  The full article can be found at http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/terror-touches-down-visa-fraud-migration-crime-rampant-immigration-department-files-reveal-20140806-3d8wj.html

As the media sieves through hundreds of leaked documents and reports covering the period between 2008 and 2013, more allegations of visa fraud and the department’s inability to deal with it have emerged. With the budget cuts and the merger of the Immigration and Customs, which will result in fewer staff managing the already crippled system, things are likely to get worse.

Here are some of the allegations highlighted in the reports:

• As many as nine in 10 skilled migrant visas may be fraudulent. Fraud within the General Skilled Migration program is extensive with estimates at around 90 per cent [or] more than 40,000 suspect visa applications lodged per year for the last three years''.
• More than 90 per cent of Afghan cases in 2012 contained "fraud of some type" and raised "people smuggling, identity fraud, suspected child trafficking and national security implications".
• A Somali people-smuggling cell operated in Melbourne linked to terrorist suspect Hussein Hashi Farah, who "is believed to have links to the al-Qaeda offshoot al-Shabab" and who fled Kenyan counterterrorism officials using an Australian passport in 2010. But the departmental file shows that a 2009 investigation into the cell's activities was "deemed low priority and ceased due to a lack of resources".
• There is an organised immigration crime network consisting of a facilitator with suspected Pakistan terrorist links, along with "migration agents, employers and education providers. Fairfax Media has confirmed this network was never properly probed, allowing many of its members - including federal government licensed agents - to continue to operate.
• Tens of thousands of immigration fraudsters are living freely after being assisted by migration crime networks exploiting weaknesses in working, student, family and humanitarian visa programs, including loopholes that have left the department sometimes ''generating the fraud''.
• The department is ''responsible for granting a record number of student visas to people who may not be considered genuine students as well as granting permanent residence to skilled migration applicants who do not have the appropriate skills being claimed''.

In 2013, department chiefs were warned in a confidential report that the agency's investigations arm had collapsed, risking ''the integrity of its programs and ultimately national security''. Immigration Department insiders have warned that investigation failures are set to worsen with the merger of the Immigration and Customs departments into a ''border force'' in 2015 because of corresponding budget cuts, and uncertainty as the new agency ''finds its feet''.