Private colleges have beenexposed paying local education agents hundreds of thousands of dollars to recruit international students who were already in the country,a practice known as “onshore poaching”.
TheTrafficked investigation byThe Herald,The Age and60 Minutes found that a global human-trafficking syndicate had been able to run an illegal sex racket in Australia with virtual impunity and that migration agents running “visa farms” had been able to corrupt the entry process for students,families seeking reunification,and refugees.
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The Nixon review,as revealed by leaks toThe Herald andThe Age,found that gaps and weaknesses in Australia’s visa system were enabling “criminal organisations and unscrupulous people” to “exploit people and make money”.
These “abhorrent crimes” had remained partially hidden by “seemingly higher law enforcement priorities such as illicit drugs,tobacco and unauthorised maritime arrivals”,Nixon wrote in her report,which the government has yet to release publicly despite promising to do so before the May budget.
“I hope this report will lead to a strengthening of Australia’s visa system so that temporary migrants are protected from the grotesque abuses that have been described,and Australia is reaffirmed as a safe destination for those who wish to visit,study,work or live here,” Nixon wrote in her report.
Among Nixon’s leaked recommendations in theRapid Review into the Exploitation of Australia’s Visa System,delivered to the government in March,were banning temporary migrants from working in the sex industry and the introduction of character tests for migration agents.
Education Minister Jason Clare said:“International students are back,but so are the shonks seeking to exploit them and undermine our international education system.
“Students from around the world choose to come here first and foremost for the high-quality education we offer.”
Flagging further measures to come on “dodgy” operators in the international education sector,Clare said:“The Nixon review identified the need to increase monitoring and compliance in the international education sector and the government is responding.”
Skills and Training Minister Brendan O’Connor is set to make a set of announcements flowing from the Nixon review on Tuesday followed by separate immigration-related policy changes by O’Neil and Immigration Minister Andrew Giles on Wednesday.
O’Neil said earlier this year that the Nixon review,alongside a separate review into migration policy by former senior public servant Martin Parkinson,had found “aspects of our migration system that are broken in fundamental ways”.
Speaking to Sky News on Sunday,Clare also addressed the high cost of childcare in Australia,saying thatthe idea of naming and shaming childcare providers who charge over-the-top fees “makes a lot of sense to me”. The comments came after the competition watchdog found Australian families were spending far more on childcare than those in most developed countries.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) found that an average Australian family with two children under three was spending 16 per cent of its net household annual income on centre-based full-time daycare.
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