Source: The Age
‘A state of disrepair’: Home affairs minister slams immigration system
Revelations about the large-scale rorting of Australia’s immigration schemes by organised-crime syndicates and migration agents, some of whom have boasted about their close links to federal politicians, have been responded to by the Home Affairs minister, who was forced to admit the extent of the problem, announcing an “independent inquiry to examine revelations of widespread visa rorting linked to sex trafficking, foreign worker exploitation and drug crime”.
From the Age:
“Trafficked has revealed how state and federal agencies have spent years issuing confidential warnings of migration rorting, involving syndicates gaming the visa system to bring criminals or exploited workers into Australia. This is facilitated by networks of corrupt federal government licensed migration agents, education colleges, fixers and people who rort the English language test.
O’Neil said the revelations had highlighted “the failure of our visa system” as well as “dodgy educational institutions that are clearly set up as fronts to bring people into the country, some of whom go on to commit crimes”.
“And the question is, why was this problem let run for so long?”
It will be interesting to examine the findings of this inquiry, and more importantly whether any of them are acted on by the Federal government. Now that what had been an open secret to many in the know for over a decade is now indisputable and politically embarrassing, something must happen. Minor reform will not be enough to resolve something as big as this.