Rudd's Australia: Illegal immigrants to be set free,Labor's "open borders policy" kicks in

Illegal immigrants who overstay visas will no longer be put in detention camps

By Wayne Flower and Ben Packham
Herald Sun
May 03, 2009 11:31pm

ILLEGAL immigrants will no longer be locked up and deported when caught by authorities, in a major softening of immigration procedures.

Instead, people who overstay their visas will be invited into an immigration office and could even get temporary bridging visas.

Immigration officers have been instructed not to detain visa violators unless they are known to be violent criminals or have previously been instructed to leave.

Until last week, illegal foreigners were immediately detained at detention centres and put on planes home within weeks.

The new approach is in line with a general softening of immigration policy by the Rudd Government.

Under the policy, officers are required to issue illegal foreigners with bridging visas and work with them to get them home.

"We basically have to invite them into the office for a coffee," an insider within the department said.

"They can get a couple of weeks or six months, whatever it takes to get them home without detaining them."

Mandatory detention was axed last year, but until now only asylum seekers have been allowed to live in the community.

The new directive from Immigration Minister Chris Evans' office was issued to immigration officers verbally last week.

There are almost 50,000 visa overstayers living illegally in Australia.

More than one in 10 is from China.

Entrants from the US, Malaysia and Britain are also big overstayers.

Most come in on tourist visas, but about 3600 are foreign students who disappear into the community when their course is over.

The Government has also closed down offshore processing facilities on Nauru and Manus Island.

Senator Evans' directive has divided opinion within department ranks, with some fearing the softer approach could send a dangerous message.

"I guess it says people can pretty much do whatever they want now," the insider said.

"They've been caught, but they can stay and go home when they want."

The move could open the floodgates for unwelcome visitors.

"It certainly could be open for exploitation," the insider said. "Prisons are not nice places to be in. Many of these people are not criminals, but I guess it doesn't convey a strong message."

Senator Evans said detention would only be used as a last resort.

"The presumption will be that persons will remain in the community while their immigration status is resolved," he said.

"If a person is complying with immigration processes and is not a risk to the community, then detention in a detention centre cannot be justified.

"The department will have to justify a decision to detain - not presume detention."

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Multicultural Australia's hands on our Passports

AFP swoop on two women over fake passport claims

The Daily Telegraph
May 04, 2009 12:00am

A POST office clerk and a suburban mother allegedly masterminded a fake passport racket to bring illegal immigrants into Australia.

The false passports created at Fairfield Post Office were used by a people-smuggling ring to fly illegal immigrants directly into the country, police claimed.

Postal worker Lara Triglia and her alleged accomplice Samira Al Kanani, 44, faced Parramatta Bail Court yesterday.

The women were dramatically arrested on Saturday night after police claimed their role in the racket was uncovered by a damning paper trail.

Lara Triglia, an unassuming 35-year-old clerk, was arrested in the middle of the night at the home she shares with her father.

Alleged accomplice Al Kanani, of Mt Druitt, was arrested by Australian Federal Police at Sydney airport as she tried to board a flight out of the country.

An investigation into the women began in April, after officials discovered people smugglers were using "corrupt Australia Post staff" to approve fraudulent passports and then going overseas to help immigrants skip the queue.

It is not known how the two met but the AFP will allege Triglia, whose job as an interviewing officer was to meet applicants and check that photos and documents matched up, signed off on papers linked to Al Kanani and her family.

The fake applications allegedly included three that had Australian names but photographs of "unknown citizens".

Investigators checked a driver's licence photograph from the RTA and found the name on one passport and its accompanying photograph were of two different people.

Phone records revealed the mobile number belonged to yet another person - Al Kanani's son.

The passport, in the name of an Australian citizen, was never used to fly out - just to fly in.

Another passport application was made in the name of Al Kanani's second son.

Yesterday the court was told investigators then set up a sting, ordering the Australian Passport Office to issue the fake papers.

When Al Kanani's daughter came to collect her "brother's passport" police tracked her to her car, where Al Kanani was sitting.

Police, who watched her movements for two weeks, swooped when Al Kanani allegedly tried to board a plane with the fake passport on Saturday night.

Yesterday Al Kanani appeared over video-link at Parramatta Bail Court in tears.

Despite her dramatic arrest only hours earlier, Triglia calmly faced the court.

More passports that Triglia ticked off are being analysed.

Triglia, who faces three charges of making a false statement on an Australian travel document, was granted bail.

Al Kanini faces three charges. She was refused bail.

Both will appear at Central Local Court on May 6.

Australia's Government departments are riddled with ethnic specific gangs white anting the laws of Australia by rubber stamping applications for citizenship, passports social security and Insurance claim payments.
These two are simply some very small fish in an Ocean of corruption and crime manifested by the imposition of Multiculturalism by the Labor Party starting in the Whitlam government of the 70's.