Asian airports' lax officials 'help illegals into Australia'

Asian airports' lax officials 'help illegals into Australia'

CANBERRA (Reuters): Corrupt or lax officials in major Asian
airports are allowing illegal immigrants with false travel
documents to fly to Australia, said a report by The Australian
Institute of Criminology.

The report said Asian "document mills" were providing false
and stolen passports, visa applications and work arrangements,
such as prostitution, for illegal immigrants to Australia.

A rise in illegal air arrivals to Australia could be traced to
a handful of Asian airports, where illicit travel documents were
used, said the report released on Thursday.

"A small number of airports are reflected in a large
proportion of cases and this suggests a presence of lax
monitoring or corruption at major airports in Asia, for example
Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Hong Kong," said the report.

The Australian government said on Friday it was boosting its
detection efforts to block the growing influx of illegal arrivals
through airports.

"What we are doing is trying to work smarter with overseas
staff, computerized systems and alert systems so our technical
expertise is giving us an advantage that other countries just
don't have," a spokesman for Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock
told Reuters.

Australian authorities are struggling to contain a surge in
the number of people entering Australia illegally using people
smuggling gangs.

In the financial year to end-June 2000, 5,870 asylum seekers
arrived by air and boat -- 20 percent coming by air -- up from
3,027 the year before.

The Institute report said false documents were widely
available in Asia as long as people had money and the right
connections.

"One example was a Taiwan-based syndicate organizing Taiwanese
passports, both stolen and fraudulent, for Chinese nationals
traveling to Australia," it said.

The report detailed organized boarding pass swaps at airports
and illegitimate migration agents who provide fraudulent visa
applications and pre-arranged illegal employment on arrival.

"Those trafficked end up in sectors associated with organized
crime, for example prostitution or doing 'under the table' labor
in establishments or markets controlled by criminal groups."

The Institute report also said people smuggling by boat to
Australia had become a much more sophisticated operation.

It said small scale landings by wooden boats had been replaced
by larger, steel-hulled ships with hi-tech navigation equipment.
"These boats have traveled longer distances, mainly from China
direct to Australia, and in most cases there has been an on-shore
presence to meet the smuggled group," it said.

Australian officials have caught 48 boats carrying some 3,700
illegal immigrants, mostly from Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan,
attempting to enter the country by boat since July 1 last year.