Australia says it will combat rampant visa fraud that has left human trafficking unchecked after a government review found "grotesque abuses" of temporary migrants, including sexual exploitation and human smuggling.
Australia’s government said Thursday that the country’s immigration control apparatus is broken.
Home Affairs minister Clare O’Neil told reporters deficiencies in the immigration system, including a lack of staff, have allowed international criminal gangs to transport trafficking victims into Australia on bogus asylum claims or tourist visas that should checked and monitored by the government.
The gangs then coerce the victims into prostitution in Australia.
O’Neil called the situation "just an amazing fraud that's been perpetrated on the Australian people."
The International Labor Organization and human rights activists have estimated there are 15,000 people being kept in slavelike conditions in Australia.
Besides women forced into prostitution, this includes forced marriages, as well as workers in factories, cafes or cleaners.
The government also said false asylum claims are allowing applicants to remain in Australia for a decade on temporary visas before their cases are resolved.
International education programs, under which foreign students come to study in Australia is also identified as a fertile ground for immigration and visa fraud.
O’Neil told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that deceit was widespread in the visa system.
"People are making unmeritorious asylum claims, and they are doing it because the way we manage those claims allows them long periods of time in Australia with work rights that they would not otherwise be able to have," she said. "You can be in Australia for nine or 10 years under the current system without having to have a proper reason to be here and get work rights."
Australia’s Labor government blames the previous conservative administration for allowing the migration system to fall into disrepair.
However, in rejecting this assertion, opposition leader Peter Dutton said that as a former immigration minister he had canceled the visits of more than 6,000 criminals, including rapists and other sex offenders. He said his actions made Australia safer.
The government says it will create a new Compliance Division in the Home Affairs Department -- responsible for a variety of national security and immigration functions for the government -- and invest about $32 million over four years to ensure the integrity of Australia’s visa system.
Immigration is an intrinsic part of modern, multicultural Australia. More than a quarter of the population was born overseas but strict border policies have been popular with voters.
Both major parties have supported a decade-old immigration policy called Operation Sovereign Borders that deploys the navy to tow or turn away migrant boats trying to reach Australian waters.
The policy has been condemned by rights groups.
