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A man argues with police before being detained for an alcohol-related incident on North Cronulla Beach in Sydney in this December 18, 2005 file photograph. Nine years ago, a racist flare-up in a beachside suburb of Sydney hit the global spotlight, marring Australia's reputation as a sun-drenched oasis wooing migrants from around the world. A TV documentary attempts to show the alcohol-fuelled riots of December 2005 were not an aberration and that racial tension had simmered in Australia long before the Cronulla Beach incident pitted white surfers against ethnic Lebanese youths. "The Great Australian Race Riot" documents nine major riots since the mid-19th century, beginning with sectarian violence between Irish Catholics and British Protestants living in Melbourne that led to bloodshed on city streets in 1846. To match story AUSTRALIA-FILM/RACE REUTERS//Will Burgess/Files

On Friday, the Australian Border Force declared through a press release its plans to check visas at random on streets of Melbourne in a joint operation with the Victoria Police. Federal Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, however, claimed that his office did receive an advance copy of the press release of Operation Fortitude but it was left un-read since the officials believed it to be a routine notification.

Dutton said his office neither reviewed it nor cleared it since the press release was thought to be a routine operation. He said that the ABF didn’t have any plans to conduct a random visa check on the Melbourne streets. A spokesperson at Dutton’s office confirmed on Sunday that a copy of it was sent on Wednesday and again on Thursday. “It was not opened or read because it looked like a routine operation,” the spokesman said.

It has also been alleged the press release was also passed through higher levels at the ABF headquarters in Canberra. Border Force Commissioner Roman Quaedvlieg said that the press release was cleared at low level and the higher level had no knowledge of it.

On Friday, Quaedvlieg revealed that the Victorian and Tasmanian commander of the border force, Don Smith, had cleared the media release. The Guardian reported that according to the former immigration officials, including the former communications head Sandi Logan, who claimed to have been informed by current officials involved in the issue, the media release has also been cleared by ABF Assistant Secretary for Communications Mark Jeffries.

The operation was called off after protests on the streets of Melbourne. Prime Minister Tony Abbott said that his office had no prior knowledge of the operation and the press release was “over-the-top and wrong.”

"I want to make it absolutely crystal clear, as far as this government is concerned, people will never be stopped in the street randomly and asked for their visa details," he said. "That's the sort of thing that would never, ever happen in this country."

He assured that any person suspected of visa issues would be made to go through the normal procedure.

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