News report


Tuesday, 22 February, 2000























Etrade

Get a Price Quote

find code

Code

Exchange

Type

The tools of the trade

 

People-smuggling advice to be paid for

By LINCOLN WRIGHT

The Howard Government will cover the expenses of visiting immigration experts from countries like Iran and Afghanistan, who will be invited to Australia to provide ' in country' information about people smuggling.

In an interview with The Canberra Times, Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock said yesterday the foreign experts would attend immigration seminars, where they would provide information which could be used by the Refugee Review Tribunal when it assesses visa decisions.

Mr Ruddock issued a warning that officials working for the Department of Immigration in overseas posts were under threat from the organised crime groups that were behind the trafficking in illegal immigrants.

But any threat to staff was an extremely sensitive issue, and he would not provide any more details.

' This is a very serious issue, which goes to our ability to control who comes into the country,' Mr Ruddock said.

It is understood, however, that one of the biggest problem countries is Indonesia.

A member of the Refugee Review Tribunal supported the move, saying last night that spending a few tens of thousands of dollars a year was a small investment to make to come to grips with the people-smuggling racket.

' It's a good thing. It will mean you are better informed. We need more exchanges with the people over there,' the source said.

Referring to his recent trip overseas, Mr Ruddock said there was a need to utilise the technical information of people working on the ground in countries which were supplying illegal immigrants.

' A lot of the information I received [overseas] was at variance to what happens here,' he said.

Iraq was a source country of immigrants who received a very high number of refugee visa approvals in Australia, and better in-country information was needed to assess whether this was warranted.

A spokesman for the minister said last night not all immigrants from Iraq were ' homogeneous' , in that only some had left Iraq for refugee reasons. Expert testimony was needed to work out which of them had proper grounds for refugee visas.

The invited experts would not sit on the Refugee Review Tribunal, but any information they provided would be used in the overall process, Mr Ruddock said.

The decision to pay foreign experts to visit Australia was an outcome of Mr Ruddock's recent trip overseas, when he visited Iran, Syria, Turkey, Pakistan, and Jordan to gather information about illegal immigration.


'Secret' plan to merge ACT sports teams at Bruce

UN to probe laws: ALP

Annan heaps praise on Howard, military

Dealers' row led to murder, court told

People-smuggling advice to be paid for

The end: sooner than expected

Beazley's GST plan to wipe out tax cuts: PM

ACT Labor bid to force disclosure of new tax's impact

Briefs

Editorial


Home . News . Sport . Business & IT . World brief
Your Say . Weather . Features . Find It! . Email

 

24/7 Asia
ad

24/7 Asia ad