Thousands of foreign job visas may be under threat

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Created on Tuesday, 31 July 2012 14:25

Written by Editorial staff

A government blunder could mean that the legal status of around 135,000 people on foreign job visas is under threat, according to a new report.

Trades Recognition Australia was set up by the Howard government to assess the qualifications and experience of foreign workers - but it seems there may have been a number of oversights.

Findings from The Saturday Age show that Trades Recognition Australia was never formally ratified by Joe Hockey and Julia Gillard in their roles as employment and workplace ministers at the time.

The body was established back in 2007 under the Migration Act and was designed to make sure that foreign workers met Australian standards before being approved for employment.

However, a representative from the immigration department estimated that only 12,000 under the general skilled migration program would be affected.

The problems only came to light when lawyers for Indian national Gurinder Singh were able to overturn a decision by the Migration Review Tribunal to refuse him a visa because he had provided false information on his work experience.

Although Mr Singh was found to have provided misleading information to Trades Recognition Australia, this was not considered relevant because the necessary channels had not been followed.

One of the issues was that the agency had not been confirmed in writing by a minister as being a relevant authority, which is essential for it to comply with legislation.

Chris Evans, minister for tertiary education and skills, acknowledged the oversight in a statement to The Saturday Age and assured those on migration visas that steps had been made to put the situation right.

Initial figures suggest that the blunder could have implications for 135,000 skilled assessments made between 2007 and 2011, as Trades Recognition Australia approved 99,433 skills assessments.

A further 35,908 applications were rejected during this time.

These claims follow a report from News Corporation sources, which claimed that thousands of people are living illegally in Australia once their visas had expired.

Figures obtained by the group showed that as many as 70 people per week fall under the radar - as of December 31 2011, 59,430 people were living in Australia after their visas had expired.

Immigration experts speaking to The Saturday Age suggested that the job visa debacle could have considerable implications for thousands of visa applications already in the system.

They were unable to suggest how many might be affected until each case had been examined in detail.