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It said small scale landings by wooden boats had been replaced by larger, steel-hulled ships with hi-tech navigation equipment.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.