Dodgy migration agents and employers will be in the firing line of a crackdown to prevent “grotesque abuses” of temporary visa holders, which Labor claims flourished under the Coalition government.
On Wednesday the home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, and the immigration minister, Andrew Giles, released the review of exploitation of the visa system conducted by Victoria’s former police chief commissioner, Christine Nixon.
Nixon urged the government to protect temporary migrant workers from “grotesque abuses” including sexual exploitation, human trafficking and organised crime.
In a cover letter to O’Neil in the report, Nixon said exploitation had remained “secretive” seemingly because law enforcement were focused on “higher priorities … such as illicit drugs, tobacco and unauthorised maritime arrivals”.
The Nixon report found that immigration compliance staff were reduced from 380 in 2013-14 to about 200 in 2022-23. O’Neil told reporters in Canberra this demonstrated a “lack of care, attention and basic interest”.
Giles said this was a “shocking indictment” of the opposition leader and former home affairs minister, Peter Dutton’s, record.
The Albanese government will expand its powers to cancel the visas of migrants who have been found to have exploited other temporary migrants.
The government will establish a new division in the department of home affairs to focus on immigration compliance, spending an extra $50m to increase compliance resources in 2023-24 by 43%.
Operation Inglenook, an Australian Border Force operation targeted at criminals engaged in human trafficking and modern slavery, will be expanded beyond the sex industry.
O’Neil said the targets will be “ringleaders” who exploit others, and compliance was not directed at removing their victims from Australia.
But she said the migration system could not allow people to “come to Australia and just stay for as long as they want”.
“We are also addressing this problematic area of people’s failure to depart and that is a big part of the NoM [net migration] problem,” she said.
O’Neil revealed that the department would set compliance targets. She promised to provide extra resources if the population in immigration detention increased as a result, which Nixon suggested may be required.
The Nixon review found that on average 40% of migration agents used by those hoping to come to Australia were unregistered.
The government will strengthen the fit and proper person assessments for registered migration agents but only “noted” a recommendation for offshore agents to be registered.
The government will double the size of the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority. It will gain new powers to impose conditions on migration agents, deregister migration agents for longer and increase penalties for misconduct.
The government will spend $27.8m of improved biometrics, to improve verification of migrants’ identities.
Nixon recommended a prohibition on temporary migrants working in all roles in the sex industry, which the government rejected citing international human rights commitments and practical difficulties for sex workers to make a complaint if they were exploited.
On Wednesday, Dutton refuted suggestions he was weak on compliance and accused Labor of showing “no capacity to make the tough decisions to keep our borders safe”.
He cited a reduction in visa cancellations and an increase in asylum seekers in Australia due to those flying into the country and claiming refugee status onshore.
The Nixon report suggests exploitation has become normalised in many sections of the labour market, with more than 45% of backpackers and more than 40% of international students victims earning less than $15 an hour, well below the minimum wage.
The government has already introduced legislation to strengthen employer compliance, with the power to issue prohibition notices to prevent them hiring people on temporary visas for a period.
However, Nixon recommended that powers to stand-down employers found to breach the Migration Act should result in them being permanently banning from further employing temporary migrants.
The report found that lengthy delays in reviews of refugee claims allows tens of thousands of asylum seekers to stay for up to 10 years, accessing merits review and judicial review of their claims. In January Guardian Australia revealed the Refugee Council was also concerned about this effect of the backlog.
“The volume of non-meritorious and non-genuine onshore protection claims needs to be reduced,” Nixon’s report said. She recommended that protection claims must be made through a migration agent or lawyer – which the government “noted”.
The report also found that refusals of international student visa applications are rapidly increasing, up from 15% mid-year to more than 35% in September.
On Monday the government announced that education agents will be banned from receiving commissions for poaching students enrolled in other institutions in a bid to improve the integrity of the international education system. A further announcement on unmeritorious refugee claims is expected on Wednesday.
The Albanese government is also working on its response to the migration review, which will lift the bar for international students and graduates; and is considering creating a firewall between the Fair Work Ombudsman and Home Affairs.
