On Wednesday, June 27, the Joint Standing Committee on Migration will commence the first public hearing of this inquiry that looks into the efficacy of the current regulation of Australian migration agents.
The investigation includes the nature and prevalence of fraud, professional misconduct and other breaches by registered migration agents, the current review mechanisms for migration agents and the adequacy of penalties.
The inquiry committee is collecting evidence of the volumes and patterns of unregistered migration agents and education agents providing unlawful immigration services in Australia.
In the first session, the Department of Home Affairs is expected to be the only body allowed to participate as a witness.
In March, the Assistant Minister for Home Affairs, Alex Hawke, initiated a Parliamentary call to review the regulatory framework for international education. Mr Hawke asked the Committee to conduct an investigation into the effectiveness of the current regulation of Australian immigration agents.
Committee chair, Jason Wood, told SBS Spanish the investigation hopes to conclude with a series of recommendations to the government designed to combat unlicensed immigration agents.
Mr. Wood didn’t rule out an increase of resources to protect international students from scams to strengthen international education - a sector that in 2017 injected AUD $32.3 billion to the Australian economy, according to the Department of Education and Training.
For the last four months, the Committee has been collecting background information and receiving submissions from both public and private entities.
So far 34 organisations, including the Commonwealth Ombudsman, the Education and Training Department of Australia and the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA), have lodged their submissions.
This Committee is also collecting relevant stakeholders’ views through two online questionnaires, targeting students, immigration agents and education agents.
The inquiry begins two weeks after the Ombudsman of International students published a report that describes the investigation of fraud of the agency ‘Tu Futuro’ which allegedly scammed hundreds of Latin American students for more than AUD 500,000. SBS Spanish and SBS Portuguese have been reporting on this story since January 2017.
The joint Committee will also hold public hearings in Sydney and Melbourne but is yet to set any dates.
Read the full story here - Australian Government launches inquiry into mistreatment of international students
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