Immigration Detains Three Unlawfuls in Fraud Operation
Media Release - DPS 55/2003
Three people are in immigration detention following a joint Sydney operation by the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA) and the NSW Police Fraud Squad.
DIMIA was contacted by NSW Police to assist in an operation concerning a scam involving the supply of fraudulent identification to unlawful non citizens and students, that would enable them to purchase goods, for the organisers, by deception. The team visited five addresses in the Epping/Eastwood area on Tuesday 12 August.
The three men are either not genuine visitors or are unlawful non-citizens and are currently detained at Sydney's Villawood Immigration Detention Centre.
DIMIA officers, often with assistance from state police, make regular visits to workplaces and residences in many parts of Australia in an effort to detect and locate people who are in the country illegally or who are working illegally.
In the 2002-03 financial year to 31 May the Department located 19,070 people who had either overstayed or breached their visa conditions - an increase of 10 per cent over the 2001-02 financial year when the Department located 17,307 overstayers and people breaching visa conditions around Australia.
13 August 2003
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