Over thirty-five thousand Indians have their identities stored on a database that contains biographic details of individuals red-flagged for immigration to Australia, for their suspected involvement in organised immigration fraud, serious crime, a threat to the national security, breach of visa conditions etc.
A total of 36,168 identities of Indians figure on Australia’s Movement Alert List – a database of 700,000 identities of interest from all over the world, including those with a serious criminal record and people whose presence in Australia might be considered a risk to the community here.
Outstanding debt to Commonwealth is the biggest reason for Indian nationals to be placed on the database with 9009 people from the country figuring on it, followed by ‘suspected genuineness’ (6,551 identities), ‘health concerns’ (5,908), visa overstayers (3,286) and Interpol notices against 2,880.
People who are banned from entering Australia for up to ten years are also placed on the list. Currently, there are 2,269 Indians who are banned under the Public Interest Criterion 4020 of the migration law.
Source: SBS
The database includes nearly 2,000 identities of Indians for migration-related offences, including organised immigration malpractice.
Immigration lawyer Mitch Simmons says the database is maintained to help officers of the Department of Home Affairs to make a decision on visa applications.
“There’s not a lot that’s known outside the department about the way it operates. We, the migration agents don’t have access to it and currently, there’s no way of knowing if someone’s name is on it,” he says.
Even those whose names are there, they won’t know. They aren’t sent any notification about it. So, if someone is pulled out of a queue on the airport for questioning, that may be an indication of it.
According to the Australian Border Force, the database is automatically checked when the details of a visa applicant are entered into the visa processing system and in case of a match, it is taken into consideration while making a decision on the application.
Mr Simmons says merely being on this database doesn’t mean a visa refusal.
Source: Getty Images
“What we see is that if someone has attached a false document with an application and later on that application is withdrawn, the MAL will still record the details of the applicant. Next time when the applicant applies for a visa, his details will show up,” he says.
“One’s name coming up on the list is a big red flag which means the scrutiny on such applications goes up manifold,” Mr Simmons says.
In case of criminal convictions, the ABF says, there’s no blanket policy of refusal or acceptance.
“As part of this process, immigration officers take into account any adverse MAL record—the number of convictions recorded, the length of sentence served, the level of violence (if any) and when the offence was committed—and balances this against the person's reason for travelling to Australia.”
In owing a debt to Commonwealth and organised immigration malpractice, India is only behind China, Malaysia and Indonesia, while the Russian Federation, Mexico and Turkey are the only countries with more people than Indians on this list with Interpol notices.
