Business Migrant slump ‘Costing Nation $700m’
Migration agents disclosed that the number of business migrants that enter Australia has gone down by over 60 per cent which could translate to about $700million. Last year, the federal government introduced more stringent rules that disallowed business migrants to move to Australia and at the same time keep their businesses offshore. Previously, over 1,500 business owners, senior executives and investors come to Australia yearly but when the Immigration Department stopped offering permanent residency upon arrival since March 2003, there were only 500 applications this year. According to official figures, each migrant invests $700,000 on the average to start a business and create five new jobs, and also spends another $75,000 for the application process and to move a family of four to the country. Currently, successful applicants are given a four-year temporary visa and they have to re-apply for permanent residency after running a successful business for at least two years. During the interim, they do not get Medicare benefits and have to pay overseas student fees for their children. Alan Hodder, a registered agent from Perth said that high quality candidates were applying instead to New Zealand, Canada and the US. A source said that in the year following the changes, only 319 business candidates applied.
A proposal to allow holders of the temporary protection visas (TPVs) to apply for permanent residency is being drafted by the office of Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone. At present, holders of TPVs are not allowed to apply for a permanent visa even though they have been proven as genuine refugees, and they are likewise denied access to family reunion programs and overseas travel. The new legislation is directed to the 4,200 Iraqi TPV holders who can not go back because of the worsening situation there, but Afghan and Iranian TPV holders would also benefit from it. Last month, Vanstone announced that she would lift the freeze on processing of TPV. Between 1999 and 2002, the Iraqis were the biggest group to arrive by boat and 4,269 of them or 90 per cent are recognized as refugees and granted TPVs.
A majority of the asylum seekers who were sent to Nauru some two years ago are gradually being recognized as refugees and offered visas to resettle in Australia. The United Nations, Labor, Democrats and Greens are also calling on the Howard government to release from detention the Iraqis that are still on the island and close the camp in Nauru. Even if the government announced that more Afghans are being recognized, it still maintains funding for the camp. Stephen Smith, opposition immigration spokesman said that since the number of detainees on Nauru Island are decreasing, the government should announce the end of the Pacific Solution. However, Immigration Minister, Senator Amanda Vanstone ruled out any plan to close the detention facility in Nauru saying that stopping asylum seekers from landing in Australia will deter human smuggling.
Meanwhile, 92 Afghans were recognized while 11 were rejected after a review by the Immigration Department of their cases, and because of the worsening security in their country. As of 17 May, around 90 Afghans, 50 Iraqi and seven from other countries, still remain in the island. At the peak of Australia’s Pacific Solution, there were about 1,500 asylum seekers sent to Nauru and Manus Island in 2001. This decision prompted calls to also review the cases of nearly 80 Iraqis still in Nauru. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee regional representative, Michel Gabaudan, welcomes the decision on the Afghans but asked that the Iraqi should also be brought to Australia until the peace and order situation in their country improves.
Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone announced that 77 Afghan asylum-seekers, most of whom were detained on the Pacific Island of Nauru since 2001, were granted refugee status while eight were rejected and will face deportation. There are 260 asylum-seekers being detained in Nauru and one in Manus Island. This follows the 15 refugees who were recognized last week. The recognized refugees will be offered temporary protection visas allowing them to resettle in Australia. However, while arrangements were being made to resettle them, they will continue to receive support like accommodation, food, clothing, and medical care
Nauru is warning human rights activists who are going to the asylum seekers not to go through with the plan. Stavros Georgopoulos, a 52 year old Newcastle teacher, will lead the “Flotillas of Hope," a mission that would bring messages for the asylum seekers being detained in Nauru, and gifts for their children. The group expects to arrive in Nauru by June 20, the World Refugee Day. Nauru justice secretary, Denzil Seneviratne sent a message to the group warning them that they would face fines of up to A$3,000 each and a year in jail if they enter Nauru without a visa. Helen Bogdan, Nauru government spokesman said that the activists would not be held in the same camp as the asylum seekers if they enter Nauru without visas.
Aladdin Sisalem, 25 years old, and the only asylum seeker on Manus Island, was granted temporary protection visa and arrived in Australia on 31 May, after nine months of detention. He took a commercial flight from Port Moresby, secretly wading through Cairns airport with a government minder, and flew to Melbourne out of the media’s eyes. The Kuwaiti-born Palestinian car mechanic who landed on a boat on the Torres Strait island of Saibai on December 21,2002, was the only occupant of Manus Island, save for the small staff and guards and cleaners who looked after him. Mr. Sisalem took care of a stray cat at in the Island and refugee groups are finding ways to bring the cat to him. Eric Vadarlis, lawyer for Mr. Sisalem said that he wants to start a new life and find a job in Melbourne. Opposition is critical of the government’s decision to spend A$250,000 per month for the Manus Island detention center upkeep when it is no longer housing anybody.
The federal government of Australia shut down the Port Hedland Immigration Detention Facility in Western Australia and moved out the 49, all single male asylum seekers. This group composed of Afghan, Iranian, and Sri Lankan nationals have been moved to the Baxter Immigration Detention Facility in South Australia. The Port Hedland center and residential housing project is being closed temporarily until more asylum seekers arrive.
Former Detainees to Travel to Iraq for Dad’s Funeral
The son of the assassinated Iraqi leader, Izzedin Salim, has been granted a special purpose visa to return to Iraq for the funeral of his father whom he last saw five years ago. Riad al-Hujaj who arrived by boat in Australia on October 2000 is a holder of a temporary protection visa (TPV). He is living in St. Marys, Western Sydney with his wife and three children. The Special Purpose Visa was granted with the intervention of the Prime Minister John Howard and Immigration Senator Amanda Vanstone. If normal procedure was followed, a TPV holder would not be allowed to return to Australia once he leaves. Mr. Salim, member of the Islamic Diwa Party and a long-time opponent of Saddam Hussein, was the head of the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council who was killed in Baghdad by a suicide bomber.
Meanwhile, another son, Yazin Salim who left Australia six weeks ago to visit his wife and two children, aged nine and four, in Iraq is required to re-apply for another refugee status visa and will have no automatic permission to re-enter Australia.
The Federal government had been accused of double standard when it granted exemption to Riad al-Hujaj, the son of assassinated Iraqi leader Izzedin Salim, to go to Iraq. It is far different from the case of Mohamad Ebrahim Samaki who was not permitted to visit his two children in Bali where they were stranded after their mother died from the Bali bombing, or that of Ahmed Alzalimi who was not allowed to travel to Indonesia to comfort his wife after the death of their three daughters when the boat SIEV where 353 died sank. Democrats leader Andrew Barlett said that the Prime Minister’s decision showed double standard ,while Stephen Smith, Opposition immigration secretary urged the government to change its policy to permit such travel on a case-to-case basis.
Juliet Flesch, a refugee advocate said that “there are different rules for the children of the powerful and the powerless".
Tampa Final Chapter as 12 Get Approval
The last 12 asylum seekers from MS Tampa had been recognized as refugees following a review by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. They could soon leave Nauru to begin new lives in New Zealand or Canada. Tampa was the Norwegian container ship that rescued some 433 asylum seekers in 2001, where 247 have been eventually declared refugees and 22 were sent to Nauru and will stay there until the UNHCR negotiates with countries to resettle them. The Tampa rescue sparked a political crisis in Australia when the federal government refused to allow the ship to enter Australia with the asylum seekers. It led to the Pacific Solution which required that boats carrying asylum seekers should be processed in Nauru and Manus Island. Of the 225 asylum seekers recognized in 2002 , majority resettled in New Zealand. Most of them were Afghans, and nine from other countries. The 22 who were granted refugee status have been rejected before but their cases were reprocessed following the change in the security situation in Afghanistan. The review started in September and became public when they went on hunger strike last Christmas. The Norwegian Ambassador Ove Thorsheim said that although it has taken a long time he was glad that the problem had been solved.
The Federal Magistrates Court directed the Refugee Review Tribunal to rehear the case of the Zimbabwean family and take into consideration the seizure of land. The family, who are of Indian Muslim background with four children were Zimbabwean farmers who sought refuge in Australia after they were forced to flee their farm near Masvingo in 2001 because they were threatened and their farm occupied by the so-called war veterans. The tribunal found that the danger of physical harm had been removed when they fled but the federal magistrate argued that the tribunal did not consider if the threats of “ persecution by dispossession was continuing"
An African asylum seeker who was deported from Australia to Africa was returned back to Australia after a 17-flight journey at a cost of A$24,000 (US$16,700). Idris Abdulrahman, born in Kuwait to Sudanese parents, applied for refugee status in Australia three years ago but it was denied last December. He was deported to Tanzania with two escort, but when Sudanese officials in Tanzania checked his Australian government–issued identity card he was refused entry. Australia was then forced to take him back and he was sent to the refugee detention center in South Australia. According to his lawyer, he has reapplied for a temporary refugee visa.
Kabeer Tiamoori, the 32-year old Afghan refugee was finally reunited with his wife and two sons when they arrived in Sydney from Jakarta, after four years of separation. Mr.Tiamoori’s father who was a Shiite Muslim, was murdered by the Taliban and as he was also hunted, he was smuggled out of Afghanistan, boarding a vessel in Southern Indonesia and got as far as Darwin before being picked up and sent to Port Hedland detention center for three months. For four years, he had been separated from this family when the Howard government did not permit them to enter Australia. Later, the Immigration Department announced that it is allowing families from Indonesia to go to Australia on offshore temporary protection visa. Mr. Tiamoori’s application for permanent residency is still pending before the Refugee Review Tribunal and if it would be rejected, his family will be forced to leave and go back to Afghanistan. Jill Vidler, Mr. Tiamooris’ lawyer said that would be very cruel for the government if after letting the family in, they would be thrown out again. Michelle Alfaro, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee officer in Jakarta that takes charge of cases on separated spouses disclosed that there are still plenty of families who do not know when they would be reunited.
The High Court decided on 27 May that the Afghan man who had resisted being drafted by the Taliban was a part of a persecuted group and would be eligible for refugee status. The man known as S is a Pashun who left his wife, parents and four brothers in Afghanistan, arrived by boat in 2000 when he was only 20 years old. The Taliban tried to recruit him twice for military service. The first time he paid off recruiters, and the second time he fled with the help of human smugglers. The Taliban was known for drafting “able-bodied young men for military service.
Some A$100,000 worth of pamphlets on refugees have been distributed by the federal government to 11,000 primary schools. The information kit titled, “Australia says YES to refugees" follows claims that the teachers have not been telling the children the truth regarding Australia’s immigration policy. Immigration Minister Senator Amanda Vanstone said that the information contained in the pamphlets was based on facts but Opposition called it “propaganda".
If shortages reported in NSW start to spread nationwide, some hi-tech skills may be put back on the government Migration Occupations Demand List (MODL) by the end of the year. The preliminary result of the twice–yearly ICT skills shortage survey for the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations which would be released at the end of June, showed that shortages are beginning to build in some technology areas. According to Andrew Bray, DEWR assistant occupation skills analysis section director, job vacancies and skills shortages are increasing for customer relationship management and personnel applications. He said that there is no nationwide shortage that would warrant a modification of the MODL which was last changed in October when ICT skills were removed from the list. However, former Australian computer society president John Ridge said that he would be unhappy to put back ICT skills on the MODL at this stage. He said that even if the unemployment in the IT industry is double that of the national average, people should not be allowed to enter the country on short-term contracts. The DEWR ICT Vacancy index shows job vacancies of up to 0.8 per cent over the four weeks to middle of May. It is 68 per cent higher than the same period last year. In NSW, CT job vacancy ads almost doubled on the three sites – jobnet.com.au, seek.com.au and mycareer.com.au.
According to Industry experts, it is possible that up to 20 per cent of overseas workers who entered Australia and promised IT jobs are victims of “body shopping scams". Former Australian Computer Society (ACS) president John Ridge said this practice has not been eliminated. He was reacting to reports that Indian workers were paying much to come to Australia using the 457 business visa. Shivaram Prasad, Melbourne migration agent said that several thousand of IT workers from the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh entered the country using 457 visas after they were sponsored by recruitment firms that employed them for a short time, and then let them get other jobs by themselves. Instead of the IT jobs they were promised, some of these skilled laborers work in convenience stores, restaurants, and driving taxis The Department of Immigration, Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA) denied that this practice exists. Although reported in the media, the DIMIA said that this case was over two years ago and has already been dealt with. After a protest from groups representing the unemployed IT workers, the regulation 457 program was tightened. Only employers are allowed to sponsor overseas worker. Critics of the temporary workers visa say this previous practice was open to abuse not only in the IT sector but in other white collar areas such as Accounting Tony Healy , a Sydney software developer said that the 457 visa program is unique because it does not impose a quota; unlimited number of sponsored workers can be requested; and that the department has a loose monitoring unit. The DIMIA spokesman said that as of Septembe 30, more than 30,000 holders of 457 visa were being employed in Australia. Nick Waterworth, co-founder of recruiter Ambition disclosed that they would hire 50 overseas workers through the contract management firm at any one time. Bodyshopping rose to its height in the lead-up to Y2K, and is still existing. He encourage anyone who knows of any breach to this new regulation to report to DIMIA and that he would ask for increased penalties for these recruiters.
Amanda Vanstone, Minister for Immigration rejected the suggestion of the Opposition that 45 per cent of all migrant should move to country towns and cities. She said that the federal government is introducing a new visa that would make regional migration easier but the government can not dictate migrants where they should live. It is up for the respective towns and cities to set up a system that would attract migrants into their region.
Victoria’s population is maintained by overseas migrants. For the first time in six years, Victoria felt the loss of its people to other states. One reason is the high cost of housing and the decrease in jobs. This situation was remedied when foreign migrants started arriving, mostly Italians and Greeks. The Bureau of Statistics estimates that the net increase of overseas migrants in 2003 was 40 per cent. Figures from the bureau shows that the state’s population grew by 1.3 per cent last year, or almost five million. It was the state’s biggest growth in numbers since 1969 and the fastest growth since 1990. Victoria made a net loss of 1,453 people interstate compared to a gain of 5,481 two years earlier. What Victoria lost to other states made up for gains from other nations. The bureau’s estimates show that the state gained a net of 36,683 migrants as more settlers, foreign students and other temporary residents arrived.
Speaking at the Fenner science conference, Katharine Betts, a Swinburne University of Technology sociologist, declared that temporary migration could damage the Australian environment because short-term migrants like business migrants with four-year visas, are not committed to protect the natural resources. The federal-Government sponsored conference on population was held 25 May, and aimed at resolving the issue of how big a population Australia should have without harming the environment.
According to Health Minister Tony Abbott and Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone, the government had been working to make sure that qualified doctors could get permanent residency in Australia. Applications for medical practitioners visa, both temporary and permanent, will be given priority in processing. Doctors who meet the requirements for the general or special medical registration will no longer need a sponsor and they would need to be assessed by the Australian Medical Council or by a specialist college.
Jack Roche, 50-year old Australian al-Qaeda recruit has identified the leader of the south-east Asian terror group, the Jemaah Islamiah. as Abu Bakar Bashir who was also charged in connection with the Bali bombings. Roche, born in Britain and an Islamic convert. is being tried in the Perth District Court for conniving with senior Al-Qaeda officials to bomb the Israeli Embassy in Canberra which injured embassy staff. He denied the charges. During the trial, portions of his interview by two Australian Federal Police was played and where he mentioned several times the name of Bashir referred to him as the leader of Jemaah Islamiah (JI). Roche said that Bashir was the one who decided on the structure of the JI in Southeast Asia. Bashir has strongly denied the accusations maintaining that he is not the leader and that he has no links to terrorism. However, the Indonesia police said that they have new proof of his connection with JI and his involvement in the attacks between 1999 to 2002. He is back in prison after 18 months in jail for immigration violations and forgery. He was rearrested on April 30.
There are many Australians who are in prison in several countries in the world some for murder and theft but only accused Al-Qaeda trained David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib had caught interest. The two are detained in the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay for two years now without charges. Cellmates of the two were witness to the maltreatment by their guards and concerns about their human rights were raised but other Australians jailed in China, Japan ,Kazakhstan, Egypt, Canada, Saudi Arabia and Laos suffer similar treatment. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer criticized the Labor Party’s interest on Hicks and Habib but neglect the other 214 Australians who are also languishing in other prisons overseas. The countries with the three highest number of Australian offenders in their jails are United States with 34, New Zealand with 27 and Thailand with 18.
Deported Malaysian to Sue for Wage
A pioneering case in the Chief Industrial Magistrate’s Court was filed by a Malaysian irregular immigrant, Ngu Kin Teck, who accused his company of firing him when he demanded compensation for work-related injury and then reported him to the Immigration Department. The 36-year old Ngu cut off his forefinger while working as a welder at the furniture manufacturer Three Link Up Pty. Ltd. In Sydney . He was treated at the Canterbury Hospital using someone’s else’s Medicare card, and when he went back to work, he was told that the company does not pay claims for workers compensation but instead settles privately. That case was filed with the Workers Compensation Commission. In the case before the Chief Industrial Magistrates’ Court, Ngu who said that he was paid A$11 an hour, was asking for unpaid wages and entitlements. The company refused to talk to reporters but documents on the case reveals that Ngu dishonestly withheld his identity. He was deported last January. According to The NSW secretary of the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union, Andrew Ferguson, their group had seen this cases of exploitation of illegal workers. Sydney Lawyer, William Jiang said that hiring irregular immigrants on under-wages contract and report them to immigration when they want to terminate their services may become a trend. He urges employers who want to avoid paying their legal obligations to use immigration laws. Any illegal immigrant has to prove his legal privileges. Ngu was paid in cash, has no tax file number, he didn’t pay tax. Ngu, who is back in Malaysia said that he was able to get a job as a welder again but when the boss saw his injured hand he was fired saying that he was slow.
Australia has always depended on the British colonists to come and settle in Australia. Over 30 years after the “Ten Pound Pom" assisted passage scheme where in Britons were enticed to emigrate to Australia by paying a nominal fee of ten pounds, South Australia is again beckoning British migrants enticing them to notice the advantages through its improved facilities but laidback lifestyle. Mike Rann, Premier of South Australia said it will market South Australia as a good destination to skilled and business migrants. Some 67,000 tourists from the UK visit South Australia but the government wanted them to stay permanently. Lately when the immigration laws became stricter the Britons found it harder to migrate to Australia. Priority was given to those who are not only young but also qualified, with a grasp of English . Under this scheme qualified and skilled applicants between the ages of 18-41, apply for residency. Australian firms can sponsor a foreigner only if no locals would fill it. Although the state does not plan to relax the migration laws, it is hoping the new campaign would make more business and skilled migrants to come.
Australia will soon be a country of multicultural people. Around 25 per cent of the total population were born elsewhere with the British making up the biggest migrants, followed by the Asians, New Zealanders and Italians. In the 1800’s Australia was a convict colony that competed with the US and Canada in accepting new migrants. In the 1900’s the Empire Settlement Scheme was implemented and the “Ten Pound Poms" arrive from Britain, the largest organized migration ever. There was also the family reunions which permitted over 100,000 settlers to come each year, along with 12,000 refugees. But some sectors of the population are wary of the influx of migrants, even the migrant themselves, like the migrant family from Britain supporting the anti-immigration politician.. While the government is committed to a multicultural Australia, immigration policies are so strict that there are more people rejected than accepted. People are recruited through the skilled migration program. The government is beset with criticism regarding the way asylum seekers are being treated, as in the Pacific Solution. Migration had become a sensitive issue that could become an election issue.
The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) disclosed its findings on the mandatory detention of asylum-seeker children in the study, “A last resort?". The report revealed that between 1999 and 2002, over 2,000 asylum-seeker children were sent mainly to the desert detention camps. The average stay of these children in the camp was more than a year, with some being held for three years, while one child was detained for more than five years. In the study of children being detained for a long time, some suffer chronic stress disorder. The HREOC study also pointed out that the Immigration department minister had the power to release children from detention, either on humanitarian purposes or under section 417 of Migrant Act, or by issuing bridging visa. The study concluded that between 1999 and 2003, the government treated the asylum-seeker children in a “cruel, inhuman, and degrading way".
Meanwhile, the Immigration minister has reacted to the report by saying that since all the children have been released on temporary visas, the report is merely “historical". The study also argues that all children who are in detention should be released within a month and that the legislation allowing long-term detention of children should be repealed. The minister responded that detaining asylum seekers will stop people smuggling. However, there is no evidence that the system of mandatory detention is a deterrent in as much as more asylum seekers arrive between 1999 and 2001 than any other period in Australian history. It was only through military force after August 2001 that asylum seekers were deterred and not the mandatory detention.
The Sydney-based man who jumped bail last March and fled from Australia in a forged Australian passport was arrested in Lebanon on charges of terrorism. Saleh Jamal, 29 years old, is a Muslim who attends the same prayer hall as Willie Brigitte and other suspected terrorists arrested with him in Beirut. Another Sydney resident, Haitham Mohammad was reportedly caught with him on suspicion of having links with the al-Qaeda They were detained for questioning about the series of bombings across Lebanon between 2002 and 2003 specifically the McDonald’s bombing. Jamal who is out on bail after serving 2 years in jail was awaiting trial in connection with the attack on the Lakemba police station in 1998 when he “disappeared" last March. Meanwhile, NSW Police Minister John Watkins was questioning why a man like Jamal charged with serious offenses could be released on bail and able to leave Australia with false documents.
“Another Country," a collection of writings from some 30 detainees, refugees, and former asylum seekers was launched on 16 May. The anthology, published as a special edition of the Southerly literally magazine and edited by Rosie Scott and Tom Keneally from the Sydney PEN Writers in Detention Committee, reveals the thoughts, feelings, and experiences of those who are still in detention and those who have won their freedom. One of the writers featured in the book is Mohsen Soltany Zand, a 34 year old Iranian poet who lives in Chippendale and taking a surveying course at TAFE.. He came to Australia in 1999 and was held in Port Hedland and Villawood for over 4 years. He said that he writes poetry to be able to make sense of his life now. Another refugee, Iraqi national Hussein Ali al-Hashimi wrote poems while he was held at the Woomera detention center in 2000 to give him peace and a sound mind. Another document featured was an anonymous piece called Letter from Three Women , which is described as a sad, simple, and truthfully written document by three pregnant inmates. Keneally is hoping that the book will make people aware of the true and real feelings of the refugees, see the sufferings and difficulties that they experience, present their desires and dreams that are no different from those outside, and realize that they too are human.
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