Fact Sheet 70 - Managing the Border

Border Security

Australia’s border security system differs from other countries in some important aspects.

• Australia has a universal visa system – all visitors and permanent migrants to Australia must apply for a visa or a visa equivalent, with conditions appropriate to their stay.
• Our visa application system is a risk-based system. The traveller’s risk profile, reason for travel and individual characteristics are all taken into account, and will determine what kind of visa application process is undertaken.
• As part of the visa application process, all applicants are checked against the Movement Alert List (MAL), a watch list contributed to by security and law enforcement agencies as well as other Commonwealth agencies.

After visa grant, a traveller passes through a number of other checking layers culminating in their final check at the Australian border.

Australia’s visa system provides a screening mechanism preventing the entry of people who are identified as posing a security, criminal or health risk.

Multi-layered system

Australia’s border management system is based on a number of ‘layers’.

These are:

• the universal visa system (with immigration alert checking)
• the airline liaison officers network
• the Advance Passenger Processing system (APP), which operates at check-in overseas, and
• the processing at Australian airports and seaports on arrival.

Leading-edge technology is used to deliver these secure immigration processing systems. Anyone wanting to travel to, enter or remain in Australia must pass through each of these layers.

The layers

At the time of visa application, there is a check against the Movement Alert List (MAL) prior to visa issue.

The MAL is a database of people and travel documents of concern. It includes details of criminals, who may pose a security risk and people barred from entering Australia for immigration breaches and health matters. It also includes details of lost, stolen and fraudulent travel documents.

The check at visa application time ensures travellers are checked prior to travel to Australia and they are checked again by Australian Customs Service officers when they arrive in Australia.

The Security Referral Service (SRS) allows processing to happen electronically between the department and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation. It is world leading technology and places Australian border security as being among the very best in the world.

When it is fully rolled out, SRS will:

• reduce manual data entry and improve data accuracy
• provide an opportunity to speed up the process of national security checks in some cases
• reduce the need for slower, less accurate information transmission and
• introduce guaranteed delivery acknowledgement and a unique identifier for each check.

Australia also has a network of immigration officers operating as Airline Liaison Officers (ALOs) at around 14 key locations overseas. ALOs assist airline officers in screening Australia-bound travellers at the last points of embarkation to check for inadequate documentation. In some locations, Australia’s ALOs work cooperatively with the ALOs of other countries, thus contributing to international action against people smuggling, human trafficking and unlawful activities.

Australia’s Advance Passenger Processing or ‘APP’ system is the next layer in Australia’s approach to border management. When a traveller, including airline crew, checks in to travel to Australia, the airline is required to confirm (via the APP system) whether the traveller has current valid authority to travel to and enter Australia.

Approximately 99.7 per cent of all air travellers to Australia are processed through APP. In less than four seconds, the passenger data is checked against Australia’s passport, visa and alert lists and a message is returned to the airline staff telling them whether the person is ‘OK to board on ‘not OK to board.’

This system can prevent a traveller from boarding an aircraft, flag them for screening or arrival or process legitimate travellers faster because they’ve already been ‘pre-processed’.

Entry processing at the border

When travellers arrive at the border, they may still be refused entry because of information revealed on arrival. If the document fails the test in the machine-readable material, it is referred to immigration officials for further investigation.

Identity management

Biometrics is being increasingly used in Australia and internationally as a high-tech identity management tool. As part of a broader identity management strategy to strengthen identification processes for non–citizens entering Australia, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship is introducing biometric technology into some of its programs and processes. This includes facial recognition and fingerprint matching technology.

With identity fraud estimated to cost the Australian community over $1.1 billion per year, enhanced identity checking using biometrics will reduce the opportunity for identity fraud to be used for fraudulent entry into Australia.

As biometric technology is fast becoming more sophisticated, solutions developed for departmental systems will take account of international issues, system suitability, appropriateness and capability for technological expansion.

The department is working with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and the Australian Customs Service (Customs) to design an integrated approach to the use of biometric technology at the border.
See: SmartGate Automated Border Processing

Other initiatives

DIAC is always working to improve border security arrangements while ensuring that ‘Australia stays open for business’.

The Maritime Crew Visa was introduced in July 2007 to improve security for maritime arrivals.

DIAC officers world-wide also have access to IMtel, the department’s intelligence support system.

 

Further information is available on the department's web site.
See: www.immi.gov.au

The department also operates a national telephone service inquiry line.
Telephone: 131 881
Hours of operation: Monday to Friday from 9am to 4pm (recorded information available outside these hours) for the cost of a local call anywhere in Australia.

Fact Sheet 70. Produced by the National Communications Branch, Department of Immigration and Citizenship, Canberra.
Revised 17 November 2008.

© Commonwealth of Australia 2008.