People Smugglers Sell Australian Passports to Asylum Seekers
Prime Minister Tony Abbott government's effort against people smugglers and asylum seekers is to be challenged by a new black market trend as people smugglers sell travel documents to asylum seekers, thus allowing them to enter by plane.
In an exclusive from ABC's Four Corners Program, it was revealed that people smugglers were able to sell Australian passports and visas priced up to $16,000 - this new black market trend allow asylum seekers to elude officials turning back fishing boats. The black market syndicate had been selling two types of Australian visas - the holiday visas and transit visas for planes going to New Zealand.
ABC's Four Corners Program secretly filmed an Iraqi national known as Abu Tarek as he convinces asylum seekers into buying Australian travel documents.
"An Australian visa, everything is proper - genuine passport, genuine visa. They bring it straight from the embassy complete and you fly in your name, " Mr Tarek told the client.
Mr Tarek said that just recently, a client had successfully entered Australia using the visa and passport purchased from him. Both visa and passport were issued by the Gulf state of Bahrain.
Mr Tarek also revealed that there had already been many successful entries both to Australia and New Zealand with travel documents issued by Bahrain and Oman.
In order to escape being tracked, Mr Tarek advised his clients to destroy both the passport and visa before landing in Australia.
The bulk of Mr Tarek's clientele were asylum seekers coming from Lebanon. These Lebanese asylum seekers were desperate to escape the dismal living conditions brought about by conflicts in Syria. They had admitted to their desperate act of paying people smugglers to aid them with documents bound to Australia by plane or even by boat.
It seemed like that the more the Abbott government upholds its strict asylum seeker policy, the more people smugglers invent more vigorous approaches to enter the country illegally.
In another report from The Australian, asylum seekers already brought to Christmas Island admitted that people smugglers were able to guide them with tactics and scrupulous maneuvers to gain entrance to the country.
However, Immigration Minister Scott Morrison denied that the government can be outwitted by these people smuggling syndicate. He consistently reported on the declining number of asylum seekers coming to Australia by boat.
"We're seeing fewer people coming in (to Indonesia)," he said. "We're seeing fewer people being prepared to get on vessels, we're seeing the syndicates begin to consolidate, because on their own they just simply can't find the (passengers) to make it work and they are trying to vertically integrate that up the chain."
The immigration officials were yet to be probed on asylum seekers now coming in by plane.