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Migration Fraud out of control
Australia’s Immigration Department is in crisis, according to a Fairfax report. The report claims that their investigative journalists have uncovered internal DIBP documents showing that DIBP has lost control of the immigration process and that over half of the General Skilled Migration applications are associated with some form of fraud.
Hundreds of pages of internal government documents obtained by Fairfax media apparently lay bare a system festering with visa fraud, migration crime and an impotent enforcement capacity, says a Fairfax media report.
There are allegations apparently in the leaked DIBP documents that over half of the General Skilled migration applications had some form of fraud linked to them and were labelled ‘non-genuine’.
The report alleges that ‘migration agents’ perpetrate the fraud. There are claims that some migration representatives purchased false work records for applicants. One of the allegedly leaked documents states:
“Based on testimony from applicants and informants, the street value of a fraudulent work reference ranges from between $4000-$10000, generally paid in cash.”
The report seems to be largely based on information from the previous visa regime, prior to the introduction of the Skillselect system which unlinked student visas as a pathway to permanent visas.
The report claims that DIBP leaderships says it is unable to do anything about the fraud.
DIBP Senior Manager, Wayne Sievers is quoted in the reports as stating words to the effect:
“If you are involved in serious migration crime in Australia, you need not worry about getting caught. The fact is that you can operate your illegal migration business quite freely with sheer impunity because DIBPs ability to investigate is so poor.”
"The Migration Alliance is of the view that while unregistered migration practice is condoned by DIBP, then such issues will remain and will continue to threaten the integrity of Australia’s immigration system. News reports such as this lay bare testimony to the urgent need to stop unregistered migration practice immediately" says Liana Allan.
For the full report follow this link: http://media.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/national-news/broken-borders-australias-immigration-crisis-5656502.html
Comments
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Friday, 08 August 2014Yes, these articles always stated based on reliable sources from inside DIBP that could mean anybody from call centre operator to file clerks NOT necessarily higher placed case officer or their supervisors OR senior managers. It is very true that even if you are not registered for a period of time or suspend by MARA for a short period of time, you could still lodge applications on behalf of your clients (visa applicants) as each case officer when he or she receives applications/documents to assess and finalise the visa applications they do NOT check on MARA website to see if every "agent" who has provided the Form 956 is still currently registered
Immigration blog
What i like in articles like this is the accuracy. The factual information based on "sources" and leaked documents. Reminds me of something we can watch in Today Tonight or similar quality tv shows.
I noticed that while the report is about General skilled migration, the actual data listed -eg. 40000 applications - is rather close to the statistics of the employer nominated visas.
So yet another 457/ENS/RSMS article where some expert makes a claim of 90% of cases are based on fraud.
What is frustrating that it appears that us, migration agents are directly linked with this. "We" sell documents to "generate the fraud"; "we" are the ones making the big money. Oh, and it appears that if i don't renew my registration in September, i will still be able to operate because the government wont be able to catch me...
It is evident that, even without looking at the facts and statistics, the article is as realistic as the story of show white. However i am very tired to having to justify that i not a criminal!
There is one thing i do agree with: the need of "urgent injection of at least $500 million to enable it to operate effectively". DIBP could possibly spend the funds on training of their staff.