Public opinion on Morrison’s axing of the IAAAs funding scheme seems to support the Minister’s decision despite criticism from refugee advocates, according to some opinions posted on the ABC online website. However, the public support is not for reasons stated by Morrison, but rather, the call is for lawyers and agents alike to step-up and offer pro-bono services to people in need.

The Migration Alliance believes that professional advice must be made accessible to all regardless of their ability to afford such services. The MA accepts that it is part of an RMAs moral and professional responsibility to assist those in the community who are unable to obtain legal aid or otherwise afford professional migration advice. The axing of the IAAS funding makes this all the more important.

One of the best ways of encouraging pro bono work is to recognise it. For this reason, the Migration Alliance applied for and has been approved as an Authorised Voluntary Organisation for the purposes of CPD. This is to encourage MA members to provide pro bono services and get due recognition for the time members spend on providing these services."

Under the arrangements with the office of the MARA, MA members are eligible to claim 1 migration CPD point for every 3 hours of Pro Bono work. In the next few weeks Migration Alliance will be launching its first Immigration Clinic in Auburn, NSW at the Auburn Community Centre. Details will be announced soon. RMAs are encouraged to register for this event by contacting us on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . The MA is investigating ways it can expand on its pro bono services and invites suggestion from members.

The migration advisory industry is a high-profile industry largely due to the critical role immigration plays, at any level, to swing votes. However, the MA believes it is important that the most vulnerable people are assisted and have access to professional migration advice, regardless of which way the political pendulum on the matter swings.

Dr Caroline Hong is the face of modern Australia.

Malaysian born with Chinese Ancestry, Caroline Hong has lived, worked and built her career in Australia for over three decades.

Armed with several Australian tertiary qualifications, she is well known in Australia for her passion, commitment and advocacy for the SME sector, notably in her role as International Ambassador of the SME Association of Australia, Ambassador of Australia China Business Week and President of China HR.

Over the past 15 years, she has held three CEO roles of leading industry associations in the healthcare and business sectors, and is widely recognised and admired as an Australia-Asia SME Expert.

Cyber-risk management for Migration Alliance has become an important factor for our organisation, especially during this important growth and development phase. 

Last year, as many of you would be aware, Migration Alliance suffered from a serious and sustained hacking attack and multiple cyber-intrusion attempts.  The pointed and targeted attacks on our website were so bad that the Australian goverment Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) became involved and assisted Migration Alliance over a period of about a month to counter the most severe intrusion attempts we had ever faced.  The CEO of the Office of the MARA was involved, the Data Security team at DIBP in Canberra were involved and the situation soon escalated to nothing short of an online data security 'code red'.

Whilst MA had online data security infrastructure in place at the time, we did not have an effective data-breach incident management plan.  We also did not have a Privacy Officer in place to manage the events as they occurred, in particular events which led to the theft of data.  As such we have spent time looking deeply into the Privacy Act.  We have also looked into Cyber-Risk and mitigation strategies to prevent this occurring into the future.

Women from Hong Kong and Thailand are being lured to Sydney brothels on student visas and forced to sell drugs and sex, reports The Sun-Herald. Perhaps the most damning claim in the report is that despite detailed evidence having been lodged with the DIBP more than a year ago, “nothing has been done to close the visa loophole on which the scam thrives”

The reckless exploitation of some Asian women has been uncovered by a recent Sun-Herald investigation. The paper reports that after arriving in Sydney on travel visas, dozens of women from Hong Kong and Thailand are being met by brothel managers who lodge study visa applications on their behalf. In some Sydney parlours, women are said to be forced to work up to 20 hours a day.

“During that time, the women are at the mercy of traffickers who restrict their freedom and force them to work around the clock as prostitutes. While some are aware they are arriving to work in the sex industry, many are oblivious to the fact. Sources on the periphery of the sex ring have testified that within months, an increasing number of workers are finding themselves broken, battered and hooked on crystal meth (ice), which, in some parlours, they are obliged to offer to clients,” the report states.

Commander of the NSW Police Sex Crimes squad, Detective Superintendent John Kerlatec, said: ''These are serious crimes and we work closely with our federal counterparts to ensure we tackle them not only in Australia, but offshore. The difficulty is in trying to get victimised witnesses to come forward.''

According to the report, a consultancy firm, Brothel Busters provided a paper trail to DIBP that demonstrated exactly how sex traffickers were utilising the student visa system. What was of particular concern was that most of these women 'can't speak a word of English' and yet could lodge student visa applications and stay through to the finalisation of the appeals process which could take 2 years.

...

The Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority (OMARA) describes itself as a discrete, and some would debate 'dysfunctional', office inside the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, that rationalises its self-existence, by launching ‘informal’ lines of inquiry and investigations against Registered Migration Agents.

Fact:  There is no prescribed format that compels a Registered Migration Agent to engage ‘informally’, with the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority (OMARA), in response to a ‘informal’ request for information.

To achieve its investigative purpose the OMARA requires a flow of information to establish the framework of its investigation and with the power of compulsion, attempts to lure agents into a false sense of belief, that it wants to ‘informally’ make enquiries of the agent and quickly resolve the issue at hand.