Fake refugee scandal

Multiple visits back it seems

‘Refugees feared for lives’ but returned to Iran for holidays

The Australian

12:00AM May 16, 2017

Iranian boatpeople were caught holidaying in their homeland after lying on their visa applications about fearing for their lives if they had to return.

Yet Administrative Appeals Tribunal bureaucrats have stopped Immigration Minister Peter Dutton deporting them.
Documents seen by Melbourne’s Herald Sun reveal that in each case the Iranians — who paid people-smugglers to get to Australia — were given protection visas after claiming their lives would be in danger if they returned to Iran. But soon after being granted Australian protection visas to live in Sydney and Melbourne, the Iranians had no hesitation in returning to the country from which they were supposedly fleeing.
The visas were cancelled after the Immigration Department discovered they voluntarily returned to Iran and later came back to Australia. The documents reveal one person made three return trips to Iran after getting his Australian visa. This included a trip to get married under Islamic law, an event conducted by the Iranian authorities he was supposedly terrified of.
Another claimed to be on an Iranian wanted list, but the Immigration Department later discovered the person was an economic migrant rather than a genuine refugee. A couple who arrived by boat claimed to have no identification documents and that they would be killed if they returned to Iran, but later voluntarily travelled to Iran and back to Australia on valid Iranian passports.
And two Iranian family members claimed to be stateless with no identity documents — a lie discovered when another family member applied to join them in Australia and provided documents to show all were Iranian citizens who were in no danger of being persecuted.
The revelations will put further pressure on the AAT, already under fire for overturning thousands of visa decisions made by Mr Dutton or his delegate in the past year. When asked yesterday about the Iranians having their visas reinstated by the AAT, a spokesman for Mr Dutton told the Herald Sun he was considering the next step. “The minister has the power to set aside AAT decisions,” the spokesman said.
Despite the AAT saying it was satisfied the Iranian asylum-seekers lied to Australian authorities about the dangers they faced if they were sent back to Iran, it still overturned the decisions by the minister. It was revealed last week that the AAT had overturned 4389 visa decisions made by Mr Dutton or his delegate in the past year.