A report by the ABC yesterday by Lyndy Kerin:

'Women are being trafficked to Australia and forced into a life of slavery under the partner migration program, a new report by the Institute of Criminology has revealed.

The report details the cases of eight women in Canberra and Sydney who have come to Australia with the promise of a happy marriage, but have ended up being exploited by their partners.

Samantha Lyneham, a research analyst from the Institute of Criminology, interviewed the women.

"The most severe case that I came across was one woman who - if she didn't obey her husband - would be locked outside of the house, especially during winter, she'd be forced to sleep in a backyard under a tree in freezing cold conditions," she said.
Audio: Listen to the full report (The World Today)

"During the day, she'd be forced to take a pair of scissors and to cut the lawn throughout the day, until it was mowed.

"If she didn't do that she would be beaten." '

To continue reading this story: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-21/women-trafficked2c-forced-into-slavery-under-partner-migration/5468334?section=act

Move over IELTS.    There will now be more choice in visa English language tests for Australia, writes Stefanie Balogh from the AFR.

In light of the recently reported bungle by a Virgin airlines employee who prevented a valid visa holder from boarding a flight out of Australia, the question must be asked: Do the airline check-in staff who have the power to decide whether a passenger gets on board have any decent training on visa rules?

Should airline check-in staff be required to have at least a basic certificate issued by an independent immigration training organisation before they are allowed to work at the airline check-in counter? They are after all playing judge, jury and executioner to unwary travellers dream holidays and travel plans.

These questions must certainly be on the on minds of Indonesian tourists Betty and her mother Lam-In

According to a report in The Daily Telegraph today, Betty and Lam-In have a 12-month multiple-entry visas that allow stays of up to three months at a time in Australia. Last month they planned to fly Virgin to Fiji with friends for a long weekend then return to Sydney. It would be fun and keep their visas intact.

But at Sydney Airport, a Virgin employee refused to check them in. Perhaps she misread the DIBP instructions on the computer. Perhaps she misunderstood it or was clueless. But she chose to rule the visas were no good as her interpretation was that “the date of return was more than three months after they last entered Australia”. Betty’s pleas to speak to a supervisor were ignored with the explanation that the supervisors would say the same thing and were too busy anyway.

The event on Monday 19th May was a huge success.

Please find the complete presentation by:

NAB - Paul Bailey, Grant Healy, Stacey Martin, Shannon Kong, Lily Huang