Large scale fraud within visa system exposed

Thousands of Indian students, skilled workers, and 457 visa holders are living in Australia after being admitted on false travel and work documents.Briefings prepared by the Immigration Department, obtained by the ABC's Fact Checking Unit under Freedom of Information, show large scale fraud of the visa system.The internal audits show fraud rates approaching 50 per cent, and a Department struggling to properly identify people who are entering the country.Will Ockenden reports.One of the arguments used in the asylum seeker debate is that by arriving by boat, they're.ing to Australia via the back door.But while the political focus remains on the boats, documents obtained by the ABC point to thousands of people arriving fraudulently with bogus documents straight through the front door.

Around the periods of 2008, 2009, 2010, the fraud levels were quite considerable; a matter of real concern to the Department of Immigration and Citizenship.Via a Freedom of Information request which took nearly two years, the ABC's Fact Checking Unit obtained documents showing wide-scale visa and ID fraud.It suggests fraud rates approaching one in two for general skilled migration visas and 40 per cent for Indian student visas.The Immigration Department's spokesman Sandi Logan says it was a significant issue.Human nature being what it is does mean that there will always be people seeking to test, seeking to push to the limit those regulations, those program settings we have in place.The documents say "opportunities to.bat this type of fraud remain extremely difficult" and it goes on to say:

Identity fraud is a significant risk in the Indian caseload given how easily genuine documents with fraudulent details can be obtained.Sandi Logan says the documents date back several years and a lot has changed.We're quite confident that those people who were issued with a visa are largely and in the main - 99.9 per cent - are who they say they are.The documents tell a different story.One Immigration Department eyes-only briefing from the New Delhi office, published in April 2011, bluntly says its purpose is to "report on the ease with which identify fraud is possible in India".It outlines a case where a man breached Australia's borders by entering the country under a false identity.He had previously been deported from Australia, after having a protection visa request rejected and running up a debt with the Government.