Immigration system beset by 'endemic fraud'

MITCHELL NADIN From: The Australian May 03, 2012 12:00AM
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AUSTRALIA'S immigration system is subject to widespread fraud, with hundreds of people believed to be lying about their nationality to gain a visa.

A former Immigration Department official who worked at the Australian high commission in Islamabad told ABC TV last night there was "endemic fraud" in Australia's immigration system, claiming it happened "on a daily basis".

The official told the 7.30 program she used to process visa claims at the mission in Pakistan and wanted to expose the extent of the fraud in the region.

She said one of the most common problems she faced was of Pakistanis claiming to be Afghans, who bought identification documents at the local Afghan consulate in Pakistan, before applying for a visa in Australia.

"A large percentage of my caseload would have been Pakistanis claiming to be Afghan refugees or Afghan asylum-seekers," she said. "It's a policy problem and we're so concerned with being politically correct and not being seen as racist that we're compromising our own integrity."

7.30 spoke to another anonymous official, who said immigrants granted citizenship were sponsoring people they falsely claimed as family. "Afghans in Pakistan are now coached by ever-more-informed relatives and agents in Australia about how to sidestep (Immigration's) integrity process," she said.

Migration agent Marion Le said she was aware of Pakistani immigrants who had passed themselves off as Afghans.

"Some people think as long as they're here they can stay in the community on their false identities and that is, I think, a very big concern for Australia because we have no way of knowing who these people are," Ms Le said.

The Immigration official said the department was attempting to rid the system of fraud, but the Migration Review Tribunal was making its work harder by overturning many denied claims.

"The sponsor would go to the MRT in Australia and the case would be remitted, and in that case we would have no choice but to grant," she said.

According to Immigration, more than half of all rejections are later overturned or remitted by the tribunal. "I used to dread seeing mail from the MRT in Australia because I knew there would be so many remittances back from them saying that these cases need to be granted," she said.

MRT chief Denis O'Brien told the ABC the department was "not coping particularly well" because of a backlog of thousands of migrant and refugee applicants.

Former immigration minister Philip Ruddock said a major problem was that Immigration officials were simply approving visas. "It's an easy decision to take if you know that the government's not going to appeal your decision," Mr Ruddock said. "And if you grant it to the applicant what he or she wants, they won't be appealing the decision either."