The story is a rather sordid one which involves dishonest students who are themselves preyed upon by dishonest migration agents and by unscrupulous education agents who are in the pay of fraudulent and greedy education providers.  Some Australian employers are also involved.

In the midst of this we find Australian regulators who do nothing because their only concern is not to rock the boat by upsetting powerful interests, and an Australian government which, although making polite noises about how much it cares and how determined it is to root out this kind of fraud, is really only concerned about its international image and the possible effect on the income of Australia’s international education sector.

It appears that some students are paying huge amounts of money – I have seen figures of up to $15,000 quoted – for false educational and employment certificates which can be used to claim points towards skilled migration, and even for fake passports, birth certificates and thus, in effect, for false identities.

It is said that 2500 international students in Melbourne alone have used such documents this year.  Indeed,  I was approached recently by a student in a state of panic because Immigration was investigating his documents: admitting his guilt to me, he said helplessly, “But everyone does it!” – a sorry comment on the state of Australian immigration today, I thought to myself.

The fact is that Immigration is at last becoming aware of what is going on and has sophisticated techniques for detecting document fraud.

Several migration agents, education agents and employers are facing criminal prosecution for the practices in question, and dodgy education providers are being closed down, which of course disadvantages the genuine students as well as the fraudsters.

As for the students who do this, it is highly likely that they will be discovered and their visa applications refused with little chance of their ever being able to come to Australia again.  Even after permanent residence has been granted, the visa can, and nearly always will, be cancelled, and the visa holder told to leave Australia, if it is found that the visa was granted as a result of fraud.

While there is currently a great deal of public concern at a small number of desperate people trying to save their lives by travelling to Australia on leaky boats, in my view there ought to be a great deal more concern about this much more widespread fraud on the Australian immigration system by people who come from the relatively prosperous middle classes and simply want to gain an unfair migration advantage by dishonest means.

I would like to see the Australian Government take strong action against the fraudsters of all kinds who are trying to rort the system in this way.