Greens Senator Nick McKim, who is also a member of the Joint Parliamentary Standing Committee on Migration, has asked the Department of Home Affairs to explain the repeated cancellation of tourists’ visas at borders due to so-called 'jurisdictional errors’.
“I don't understand how this could be a jurisdictional error,” he said, referring to two incidents of wrongful visa cancellations by the ABF in the last month.
The incidents were first reported by SBS Malayalam.
Last month the Australian Border Force (ABF) citing that they did not travel with their spouses as specified in the visa applications.
Then another approved by his Indian employer.
The tourists were detained at Perth Airport and questioned by ABF officers for hours before their visas were cancelled.
“They were questioning me as if I had committed some criminal acts,” 23-year-old Diljith Girijan told SBS Malayalam.
“I pleaded with them to take me out of the room for some time because I was panicking. I was crying there.”
In both cases, the government admitted in court that the decisions were made due to jurisdictional errors.
Senator McKim said he would raise the issue at Senate estimates and seek an answer from the government.
“That’s not a jurisdictional error,” Senator McKim said, referring to the plight of the three tourists.
That is an egregious error, an extraordinary mistake by Home Affairs. I think Home Affairs need to come clean on exactly how this happened.
Would this happen to a ‘white tourist?’
Senator McKim asserted that the government should ensure no racial profiling – either deliberate or unconscious - is involved in these kinds of incidents.
“It is very hard to imagine a white tourist from the US or the UK being subjected to this kind of treatment when they were actually not in breach of the conditions of their visas,” he said.
He said it would be of "high concern" if there were more incidents of this nature in the recent past.
“I am going to ask Home Affairs about this in Senate estimates.”
Community leaders have also raised allegations of potential racial profiling at airports.
Three tourists from India were kept in a detention centre in Perth for almost 110 hours by the Australian Border Force for not travelling with their spouses as stated in their visa application Credit: Supplied: Biju Pallan
“Does this happen to all communities? We haven’t heard many such cases from the European communities, but visitors from Asian and South Asian communities go through this,” Suresh Rajan, the former president of the Ethnic Communities Council of WA, told SBS Malayalam earlier this month.
However, the ABF has already denied these allegations.
“Australia operates a global and non-discriminatory migration program. Each case is decided on its individual merits according to law,” an ABF spokesperson told SBS Malayalam in an email statement.
ABF has already decided to "review one of the incidents in Perth with a view to improving the procedure".
Senator McKim called for the Department of Home Affairs to be more rigorous in ensuring that these mistakes do not happen at the border.
Prevention is better than cure. The department should be putting in place rigorous education and training opportunities for its officers.Senator McKim
He asked for more “close to real-time” auditing of visa cancellations as well to “make sure that people from particular countries or particular racial or cultural backgrounds are not being discriminated against.”
He said at a time when Australia is trying to attract foreign tourists, these kinds of incidents send a “terrible message about the country globally.”
Listen to the interview with Senator McKim here:
LISTEN TO
Interview with Senator Nick McKim
05:19
SBS News earlier reported on the number of tourist visa cancellations as a result of an interview with ABF officials.
Source: SBS
