Portfolio Budget 1998-99 - Fact sheet 1

1: Border Control

Like other developed countries, Australia maintains the right to decide who should be allowed to enter and stay in Australia.

Australian migration law sets the criteria and standards which must be met by foreign nationals who wish to come to Australia.

Almost no country in the world allows all foreign travellers to enter without authority. In Australia, only Australian citizens have the automatic right to depart and return to Australia freely; all other people must have an authority to enter and stay in Australia, in the form of a visa.

For example, migrants obtain permanent residence visas, while other foreign nationals must obtain temporary residence or visitor visas.

New Zealand citizens, who are covered by the 1973 Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement, are generally issued a computerised special category visa on arrival in Australia.

Each year, a number of people seek to abuse Australia's entry systems by attempting to circumvent Australia's migration law. For example, they may overstay visas, try to enter Australia without authority by air or sea, or produce fraudulent personal documentation. (See Fact Sheets for more information).

The Australian Government is firmly committed to ensuring the integrity of Australia's borders and to the effective control and management of the movement of people to and from Australia.

In the Australian Government's Budget of 12 May 1998, the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, Mr Philip Ruddock, announced funding for a number of initiatives aimed at strengthening border management strategies.

These built on initiatives announced earlier, in 1996 and 1997.

More Immigration staff overseas

Additional Australia-based staff will be posted to countries where there is a known high risk of abuse of Australia's entry and visa systems.

This will allow immigration staff to process genuine applications more quickly, while paying greater attention to identifying fraudulent documentation and other potential visa abuses.

The Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs will also send additional Australia-based staff to countries where significant tourism growth is projected, but where Australia's Electronic Travel Authority System is not available. (See Fact Sheet 55, The Electronic Travel Authority).

Expatriate Australians are also to be employed as locally-engaged staff at Australian overseas offices wherever possible.

Improved passenger entry

Immigration staff at Australia's international airports will be increased, with the aim of improving passenger processing, particularly in identifying passengers who are of immigration concern.

The Government is concerned that the level of unauthorised arrivals by air has increased by 127 per cent since 1995, from 663 in 1995-96 to 1350 in 1996-97 to about 1130 so far in 1997-98.

Movement Alert List

Funds were also provided in the 1998 Budget to improve the Movement Alert List (MAL) computer system.

MAL is a computer database which stores details of people of immigration concern. It is the key tool in detecting applications for entry to Australia from people whom Australia may wish to exclude - for example, people in the serious criminal category.

There are about 70 000 entries on MAL - 50 000 people and 20 000 known aliases. (See Fact Sheet 77 Movement Alert List).

In 1997, the Minister announced a major overhaul of MAL. As a continuation of this project, further improvements to the computer system will be undertaken to enable MAL to maintain a fast overall response time while rigorously searching its database.

Torres Strait surveillance

In the 1998 Budget, Mr Ruddock also announced funding for increased hours of surveillance of unauthorised movements and improved communication resources for the Department's Movement Control Officers in the Torres Strait Protected Zone. (See Fact Sheet 72, Commonwealth presence in the Torres Strait).

(This was in addition to the .8m funding for the Government's National Illicit Drugs Strategy announced in November 1997 to be spent over three years to upgrade surveillance and response capability in the Torres Strait).

Detention centre redevelopment

Australia's Migration Act 1958 requires that all foreign nationals who are unlawfully in Australia must be detained, and that, unless they are granted permission to remain in Australia they must be removed from Australia as soon as practicable.

Many of the detainees are quickly removed from Australia, or released into the community on bridging visas.

Unlawful non-citizens are detained in one of four immigration detention centres, located in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Port Hedland (see Fact Sheet 82, Immigration Detention).

In the 1998 Budget, the Minister announced the Villawood Detention Centre in Sydney would undergo a major redevelopment in 1998-99, in line with a long-standing commitment by the Commonwealth.

It has been in operation since the mid-1970s, and redevelopment of the site has been on the drawing board since 1992. The work is due for completion in mid-1999.

The million development will be undertaken in conjunction with Australasian Correctional Services (ACS), the successful tenderer for the outsourcing of the Department's detention services and related infrastructure development.

About 1500 people pass through immigration detention in Sydney each year. At any one time there may be 260 or more people in Villawood.

The redevelopment of Villawood means the current accommodation capacity of about 300-350 detainees will be maintained.

Legislation

Two Bills are before the Senate which will strengthen the Government's border integrity strategies:

- 'Character' Bill

The Government is taking steps to ensure that foreign nationals who are not of good character do not enter Australia, or if they do enter or commit crimes in Australia, they can be removed quickly.

The Minister has introduced a Bill to strengthen measures to exclude criminals from Australia and to give the Government greater powers to cancel visas of people who are of character concern.

The Bill places the onus on the visa applicant to show they are of good character. The same approach would apply to potential visa cancellations on character grounds.

In exceptional cases, the Minister, acting personally, would be given the power to cancel visas without prior notice. The person whose visa was cancelled would be required to show why the decision should be reversed.

- Privative clause

The Government has been concerned that some foreign nationals have used Review Tribunals and the Courts to delay their departure from Australia when their applications to stay in Australia have been refused.

For example, in the four years since the establishment of the Refugee Review Tribunal, 10 008 decisions to refuse refugee status or protection visas were taken by the Department and subsequently upheld by the RRT.

Of these, 979 then appealed to the Federal Court, of which only 21 were ultimately successful. This judicial review process cost the Australian community approximately million.

Steps have been taken to introduce a privative clause to limit the cost and volume of litigation. The practical effect will be to limit judicial review only to whether the decision-maker acted in good faith and had been authorised to make the decision.

Applicants would still have full access to independent merits review tribunals.

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